The Girl in the Video
by Tsu Zu Mia
Summary: Taro Shinjyo stumbles into a log cabin with a VCR. After finding a red videotape, he gets a pleasant surprise when he plays it. But he has second thoughts when his steak knife goes missing. A story inspired by the Japanese movie Ringu (The Ring in the US) and written for Ryoko Asakura fans. COMPLETE.
1. Red Tape

Taro Shinjyo stepped through the door of the log cabin and filled his nostrils with the scent of the place. It didn't smell too bad. No dead animal stench. No mold odors. No poop smells. The place had possibilities. He flicked the switch to the right of the door and was surprised when the light bulb in the middle of the room sprang to life.

Though the interior was small, it looked neat and tidy - but old. The dingy ornate paneling covering the walls was depressing. It reminded Taro of the 1970's karate movies he used to watch with his dad. "Yech!" He took a look about. A small gas stove off to the left. A sleeper sofa off to the right... facing an old tube television set. Didn't people know that those things went out of style years ago with the advent of LCD sets?

"Hmmm." Next to the TV stood a stack of VCR tapes. But where was the VCR? "Duh! Check under the TV, bonehead!" he said to himself. He opened the cabinet and there it was! Didn't these people know that nobody played VCR tapes anymore? Even DVDs were out of style. He wondered what they had for music here? Vinyl records? Eight-track tapes?

A red plastic VHS tape box caught Taro's eye. It was the second in the stack. He pulled it out and examined the case. That was odd. There was a message scratched into it. He tilted the box toward the bulb and squinted to read the barely readable message. "DO NOT VIEW THIS TAPE!" it said in large letters. He looked lower and made out some smaller letters: "If you view this tape, a girl with a really big knife may come out of the TV set and kill you!"

"Yeah, right!" Taro opened the box and extracted the equally red video tape cartridge. "What a load of bull." But he was intrigued. So he popped the red tape into the player and turned on the TV. After some static, the video stabilized and started playing. It showed the image of a very pretty Asian girl with shiny long hair down to her waist, dressed in black pajamas, looking through a closet.

"What should I wear?" the girl said... to nobody in particular. She was probably talking to herself.

Taro waited for the next thing to happen. The girl was actually very cute so his eyes remained glued to the screen.

"Well?" The girl turned and faced the camera. She put her hands on her hips. "What would you like me to wear? I can't keep these pajamas on forever!"

Taro laughed. This was fun.

"If you don't tell me what to wear, I'm going to come over there and cut your heart out. I'm serious!"

What a crazy video. But the girl was so pretty it was hypnotic. Who was she supposed to be speaking to? Was her mother off-screen standing at the door or something? Nothing was happening so Taro shouted at the set. "I think your schoolgirl uniform would be sexy!"

The girl in the video giggled and smiled. "Well it's about time you said something! My school uniform it is!"

Taro's heart nearly stopped. "Were you talking to me?" he finally managed to gasp.

The girl, who was now stepping out of her pajama pants, laughed sweetly and said, "Of course I was talking to you! Do you see anybody else around here?" Taro's mouth dropped open as the pretty girl turned her back to him and removed her pajama top. Now wearing only her panties, the girl turned to face him with her arms crossed over her chest. "Do you mind?"

"Huh?" Taro was still in shock.

"Turn around dummy!"

"Okay, sorry!" Taro turned to the wall. "Let me know when it's safe, okay?" Taro waited patiently for a few minutes as the video played.

He jumped and yelped when he felt someone tapping on his shoulder. When he turned, there stood the girl, in real life, looking very cute in her school uniform. "It's okay now," the girl said with a pleasant laugh. "You can turn around."

Taro looked on in disbelief as the girl walked over to the stack of video tapes and studied the titles. "Have you ever seen this one?" She turned and showed Taro the tape's cover. It was a movie called 'Spirited Away'. "It's one of my favorites. I think it would be really fun if we watched this one. Is that okay?"

Taro just nodded his head.

The girl winked at Taro. "Excellent answer!"

When the girl removed the red tape from the VCR, the image of the empty bedroom disappeared into static. She pushed in the new tape. It started automatically.

The girl, now smiling brightly, skipped back to the couch and plopped down next to Taro. "I'm sure you'll like this," she said. "It's very good."

Taro looked over and smiled at his pretty companion. "Hey," he said. "If I didn't tell you what to wear, what would you have done?"

The schoolgirl looked over at him with a sweet smile, accompanied by dark, cold eyes. "You read the box... didn't you?" She turned back to the movie. So Taro did, too.

It was an animated film. Taro's companion giggled as she watched the little girl character complain from the back seat as her parents were driving to their new home. "It's about a girl that gets taken from one reality, and is transported into another. It starts slow, but it gets much better further in." The girl pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them as she watched.

Taro couldn't take his eyes off of the girl. "You're very pretty," he finally managed to say, "in a scary sort of way". He considered asking her if she was real but decided against it.

The girl turned, blinked a few times, and giggled. "I think you're kind of cute, too." She dropped her legs, scooted over next to him and rested her head on the stunned boy's shoulder. Then she continued watching the movie.

Taro took a deep breath. Then he put his arm around the girl.

Again, the girl giggled sweetly. "Don't you think you should buy me dinner first?"

With his free hand, Taro pulled the cell phone out of his pocket. "Is American pizza okay? I saw a Dominos on the way over here. And they deliver."

"I like jalapenos and pineapple," the girl replied while keeping her focus on the show.

"By the way, my name is Taro. Taro Shinjyo."

The girl turned toward her new friend and extended her hand. "Ryoko. Ryoko Asakura."

"Do you live around here?"

"Please don't ask me too many questions," Ryoko replied with a sigh. She moved a little closer to Taro and pulled his arm a bit more tightly over her shoulder. "Let's both be quiet and enjoy this movie. It's very good."

"Okay," Taro replied. They watched the movie together in silence.

After ten minutes, Ryoko turned to her new friend. "Okay, rule change," she said with the sweetest smile and a giggle. "Ordering the pizza is allowed!"

"Okay," Taro said as he dialed his phone... realizing that he really liked this very strange girl... though now he really wished he would have suggested a swim suit.


	2. Dinner With an Imaginary Girl

Taro and Ryoko made it through half the movie before Taro was startled by a loud knock on the door.

Ryoko wasn't fazed a bit. "Dinner's here!" she said cheerfully.

Taro stood up. "Be right back." He walked to the door while Ryoko dashed to the VCR and pressed the STOP button.

When he returned, holding the pizza box, the pretty schoolgirl was there waiting for him on the couch with a sweet smile. For a second, Taro paused. How could this be happening? He could tell that the girl sensed his hesitation, but she didn't move and she didn't say a word.

Taro inhaled, savoring the smell emanating from the box. "It smells good. Jalapenos and pineapple is a pretty strange topping choice. But I'll try it."

"It's a very good combination." Ryoko put her hands in her lap. "A mixture of spicy and sweet. It really stimulates the taste buds."

Since there wasn't a table in the small cabin, Taro retrieved a chair from the kitchen and set it in front of the couch. He set the pizza box down on it. Then he watched with amazement as his mysterious and alluring companion bent forward to open the box, her long shiny hair cascading over her shoulder like a waterfall.

"I've always loved the smell of pizza," Ryoko said next. "I really miss it."

Taro couldn't hold it in any more. "Miss Asakura. Are you real? Or am I imagining you?"

Ryoko giggled sweetly and picked up a piece of pizza. "Why did you pick a school uniform, Taro? For me to wear. Nobody does that." She took a healthy bite.

"What do most people pick?" Taro took his turn at answering a question with a question.

Ryoko chewed the pizza and swallowed it before she spoke. "I don't always give them the option. But when I do, most people just stare at me... like mute idiots." She took another bite. This time she spoke as she chewed, though she covered her mouth as she formed the words. "Some suggest that I just wear socks… or something along those lines."

Taro's eyes got big. "No kidding! Do you do it?"

Ryoko gave Taro a cute smile while squinting. "You'd like that?"

"No. Not really… I mean, I would… of course… you're _very _pretty… but that's not why I came here."

Ryoko laughed at Taro's honest, nervous answer. "No, of course I don't do it! When they suggest that, I just go back to bed. And then they turn off the show."

"What type of school uniform is that? I mean, from what school? I don't recognize it."

Ryoko picked up the pizza box, put it on her lap, and flipped it open in Taro's direction like an alligator's mouth. "Eat some pizza." Ryoko winked. "Pretty please? I guarantee you'll like it."

Taro shook his head and reached for a slice. He stuffed the corner into his mouth and took a bite. The sharp taste of the jalapeno made him pucker, but soon a sweet juicy piece of pineapple countered that impulse. His eyes lit up. "Wow! This is really great!"

"Told ya." Ryoko put the box back on the chair. She turned to Taro. "Why did you come here tonight?"

"To get away. Sometimes I get blocked and I just need to get away." Taro shrugged. "So I went for a long drive."

"But why did you come _here?_"

"Just dumb luck really. I made some turns and took some roads heading into the mountains that looked scenic. Then I saw these cabins and the 'Vacancy' sign lit up in the front office window." Taro stopped talking for a few seconds. He could tell Ryoko wasn't buying his story. So he continued. With the truth.

"Okay. I found it on the Internet. Look, I know that these aren't really vacation cabins. I know why people come here." He patted the sofa. "I'm sure the sleeper mattress under here is pretty gross, and I'm not feeling great about these cushions, either. But it was a very cheap place to crash. Especially this unit. They practically gave it away." Ryoko nodded. "Because of some recent peculiar… um… _death_ that occurred in here last week. But I don't have a lot of money, and I don't believe in ghosts, and like I said I really needed to get out of the city for a night, so..."

Ryoko got up, walked over to the VCR, and hit the PLAY button. She sat back down on the couch and put her index finger over her lips, signaling it was time for silence once again. The two sat quietly and ate pizza as the movie progressed.

"Thanks for dinner," Ryoko said sweetly after swallowing her last bite. She slid across the sofa cushion to Taro's side… and rested her head on his shoulder when he put his arm back around her.

* * *

><p>When Taro awoke the next morning, he was alone, reclining in his spot on the sofa. Sunlight streamed in through a cracked window, revealing the dust hanging suspended in the air. The first thing Taro noticed after lowering his eyes was static pulsing on the TV screen; its speakers now filling the room with soothing white noise. He shook his head. "What a crazy dream."<p>

Then he looked down and noticed the wool blanket covering him. The makeshift chair-table was gone - he turned his head quickly to the right - and back in the kitchen where it belonged. The end of a neatly folded pizza box jutted out of the garbage can sitting next to the chair. When he turned back to his left, to the place where his mysterious imaginary companion had been sitting, he saw an empty cushion… with a red video tape case resting neatly in the middle of it.

He picked up the case with a smile, then verified that it still held the red tape. When he stepped through the door five minutes later, the tape was snug and safe in the inside pocket of his jacket.


	3. VCR

While driving his beat up old Honda Del Sol back toward the city, a cheap looking white sign with black lettering caught Taro's eyes. The sign said, "Thrift Store". Taro's eyes were tuned to recognizing those signs since that's where he bought most of his clothes lately. He turned off the road and parked in the dilapidated white building's parking lot.

After stepping through the door, Taro walked past the clothing racks - he didn't have enough money for that right now - back to the nick-nack section. "Aha. There they are." He had the choice of three VCRs, each costing 300 Yen. Plus another 100 for an old universal remote.

"Naah." He put the remote down. He really liked watching Ryoko manage the VCR controls manually. Taro put the VCR, an old Sony model, under his arm and walked to the register. He was just about to step up to the counter when he came to a dead stop.

"What in the world am I doing?" No, pretty girls didn't just hop out of TV sets. As real as it seemed, last night didn't really happen. It couldn't have. Taro was imagining things. And it wouldn't have been the first time. Of course the one other time involved some stupid experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs. _It'll make you more creative,_ his friend had told him. _Steve Jobs did this._ Taro hadn't touched that stuff for years and vowed never to do it again.

Sure, he could have put the chair away himself... and cleaned up the pizza box… and found the wool blanket and covered himself with it… after putting the red tape on the cushion next to him. This was all possible.

The red tape. He opened his jacket and looked down. It was still there. Ryoko was still there. Or was she? Well it was only going to cost him 300 Yen to find out. He stepped up to the counter and set the VCR down in front of the old lady manning the cash register.

The lady raised her eyebrows. "We don't sell too many of these anymore. You know, I can remember when I paid over 40,000 Yen for my first one." Taro nodded, smiled, and handed over the money. "Do you need cables?" the lady asked.

Taro thought about her question. "Yes. I guess I do."

The lady reached under the counter and set some cables on top of his purchase. "It's on the house. Have a nice day!"

Taro stuffed the cables into his pocket and nodded with a grateful smile. "Arigato!"

Traffic was light when Taro's Del Sol entered the city limits. He took a deep breath. Sometimes, he remembered reading somewhere, the drugs don't leave your system. And they can recombine in the brain years later. That must have been what happened.

After navigating through some city traffic, Taro pulled into the parking lot of an old warehouse in the city's garment district. Though the building was quite run down - graffiti covered its walls and few of its windows were still intact - it was the place that he called home.

Taro parked his car near a loading dock and scaled the concrete steps. After stepping through the heavy fire door he hopped into a nearby freight elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. He hugged his new VCR tightly on the way up.

Contrasted with the outside of the building, the top floor of the warehouse was surprisingly neat and clean. As well it should be. Taro had spent countless days, even weeks, cleaning, sweeping, scrubbing, puttying and painting. He was grateful to have this space and he wasn't going let anybody think he didn't appreciate what he had been given.

Since the space was quite large, Taro only used up a corner of it to live in. This corner, bounded by a concrete pillar, contained a lumpy bed, a large couch, and an old wooden kitchen table with chairs that served as his work desk. On the desk sat a five-year-old Apple MacBook Pro, a machine that had been the hottest laptop around when Taro first got it. Opposite the couch, between a scratched up refrigerator and a poorly stocked food cabinet, stood Taro's pride and joy - a 60 inch LCD television set. It had been a high school graduation present from his parents.

At the far end of the building, catty-corner to his living room, Taro had set up his studio. At the moment it consisted of two empty easels and a podium. On the podium stood a slab of marble with only the top corner chipped off of it. A large folding table pushed up against the wall was the home to his tools, brushes, paints and other necessary supplies. A well worn and colorful smock hung on a plastic hook glued onto a nearby concrete pillar.

After walking into his space, Taro looked at the smock for several minutes. But he still didn't feel like he was ready to wear it. Instead Taro marched over to the kitchen table and set his new VCR on it. Then he took off his jacket and hung it over one of the chairs. He heard the plastic tape box bounce up against the back of the chair as he did this. Taro lifted the red box out of its snug home and set it down on the VCR.

Taro's laptop seemed to be calling out to him. There was something he wanted look up. But the red tape caught his eye. The MacBook could wait. Taro had an appointment with an hallucination.

The cables the kind old lady had provided worked perfectly. Taro was amazed that a TV set as modern as his 60 inch LCD still had connections that worked with this ancient device. When he plugged the VCR in, it powered right up. Taro stared hypnotically at the flashing "12:00" for several seconds.

Then he picked up the plastic tape box and opened it up. The red videotape was still in there. He checked the spindles. Someone had rewound it to the beginning. Taro turned on his television and set the source to "AV". Instead of seeing the static he was accustomed to, he saw a blue screen. He patted his VCR as if it were a well-behaved pet. Some of the better units sensed when there wasn't a signal and put out a nice blue screen up instead of noisy static.

"Here goes nothing!" Taro pushed the red tape into the machine and pressed PLAY.


	4. Tea With an Imaginary Girl

Taro stepped back and focused on the screen, which flashed at first as the VCR engaged the tape. Some horizontal white lines danced up and down a black backdrop before fading. The screen soon stabilized on the blackness.

Taro watched the show for several minutes, straining his vision as he looked for something, a shadow, an object, some sort of contrast. But there was nothing.

"Hey!" he said. "Is anybody in there? Is anybody home?"

He watched the blackness for a few more minutes. Then he took a deep breath, feeling both relief and disappointment.

"I knew it couldn't be real," he sighed, as he walked up to the VCR, his index finger extending toward the STOP button.

He imagined hearing some footsteps. The sound was barely audible, but he heard it. Or were they just a figment of his imagination?

"Hold your horses!" came a groggy but sweet voice through the TV's speakers.

After a loud "click" a single bare bulb lit up the image on the video screen. Everything was visible again; the bed, the closet, the walls of the small white windowless room. Ryoko stepped into view, once again wearing her black pajamas, blinking and stretching her arms as she yawned.

She stood up straight. "What should I wear?" she said. "I can't very well stay in these pajamas."

Taro crossed his arms over his chest and with a wide smile said, "Do you have a pair of flannel knee-high socks? That would be sexy."

Ryoko gave Taro an icy glare… before putting her hand to her mouth and giggling. "Yes, I do, in fact. Let me get out of these first." She started unbuttoning her pajama top.

Taro's eyes grew wide with fear. He put out his hand. "No, Ryoko! Stop! I was just kidding!"

Ryoko winked. "Yes. I know. I was, too." The girl on the video screen sat down with her legs crossed and looked around. "Where did you bring me?"

Taro looked around as well. Then he looked back at his TV set. He still couldn't believe that this was happening. "Hang on," he said. He walked to his food cabinet and grabbed the TV remote off the top of it. Then he pointed it to the screen. "I want to try something. Is that okay?"

Ryoko just shrugged and kept looking around. She was now studying the ceiling.

Taro started messing with the buttons on his remote. First he tried changing the aspect ratio. Though the blue light on the bottom left of his set flashed, signalling the reception of the command, the image didn't change. He tried changing the brightness, the color, the contrast. Nothing changed.

"It looks like we're in a warehouse," Ryoko said. "It's kind of nice… but it needs a lot of work."

Taro was afraid of losing Ryoko at first, but then guessed, correctly, that changing channels wasn't going to alter the image either. Taro's finger moved up to the red button.

"Please don't cut the power," Ryoko said. "I won't be able to sustain this image too long on my own if you do that."

"Okay, I won't." Taro quickly set the remote control on the cabinet. Then he walked back and faced the screen. "Hey, Ryoko. Would you like to have some tea with me?"

Ryoko tilted her head and smiled. "Sure. But you still have to tell me what to wear."

"I think those pajamas look fine."

Ryoko frowned. She pointed at Taro's shoes and slowly raised her finger until it pointed at his chin. "You're dressed for the day. I'm not a bum, you know."

Taro looked down at his light green t-shirt and dark blue jeans.

"Do you have blue jeans in your closet?" he asked. "And maybe a chartreuse blouse."

"Chartreuse, huh?" Ryoko nodded. "I can do that." She made a circling motion with her index finger. "Turn around, please." Taro turned his back to the TV set. When his head turned slightly to the right, he heard a sweet giggle through the speakers. "No peeking!"

Taro looked straight ahead and did not move. He jumped a little when Ryoko, dressed in tight blue jeans and bare feet, walked past him to his kitchen table, the fabric of her blouse was tinted a perfect off-yellow hue. His eyes widened with awe when she turned toward him; the girl looked so beautiful in person.

"Where's your tea pot?" the girl asked.

Taro pointed to the small wooden bookshelf next to the food cabinet. On it rested a microwave oven topped with a hot plate. An empty aluminum pot sat on one of the hot plate's burners.

Ryoko nodded. She walked over to the cabinet and looked inside. Taro's sparse collection of thrift-store-bought mugs, glasses, plates, and bowls graced the third shelf, along with a beer mug full of silverware. Ryoko took down two ceramic mugs and fished two spoons out of the beer mug. She set them on the bookshelf next to the microwave.

"Water?"

Taro pointed to a door on the far wall. "I usually get it from the sink in the janitor's closet."

Ryoko looked over at the closet door, which was a good forty feet away from the set. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As she did, the image on the TV set flickered. Then she walked over to the closet, aluminum pot in hand.

Taro sat in his chair at the kitchen table and watched his new friend prepare the tea. She was amazing to watch. So beautiful. So… real.

Taro rose when Ryoko returned with two mugs of tea. "I hope the color of my blouse is okay," she said as she set Taro's mug on the table in front of him. "You requested a very specific hue."

Taro turned, moving the sleeve of his t-shirt near Ryoko's blouse. "It's a perfect compliment."

Ryoko giggled and nodded in agreement. "You're an artist, aren't you?"

Taro felt his face flushing a little. "Yes. I am. Painting and sculpture."

They both sat down.

"Like Michelangelo." Ryoko crossed her legs and took a sip of her tea.

_Boom - boom - boom. _

Taro turned to the front door. Someone was pounding on it.

"Hang on," Taro told his guest. "I think I know who that is. I'll be right back." He got up, jogged to the front door, and pushed down on the handle, opening it.

An older man with grey hair stepped into the room. Taro bowed. "Hello Uncle Shiitaki. Welcome. How are you?"

The uncle smiled and patted his nephew on the shoulder. "Taro-kun."

"I have someone I want you to meet," Taro said excitedly. "A friend." He turned and walked back to the kitchen table - but was shocked to find that Ryoko was gone. So was her tea mug. He looked over at the TV set. It was off. He dashed to the VCR and pushed in the tape slot. It was empty. The red tape box was gone as well!

Near panic, Taro rushed over to the food pantry. There, on the third shelf, next to his mug full of utensils, was the red tape box. Ryoko's mug, still warm to the touch, rested on the box. Before he closed the pantry door, Taro paused. Something was off. He looked carefully at his beer mug.

His favorite steak knife was missing.


	5. Data

Taro turned toward the front door, but soon realized his uncle was now sitting at the kitchen table, watching him go through his cabinet. Taro sighed and shook his head.

"Tell me about your guest, Taro-kun."

"A shy girl I just met. I think she ran off down the back stairs when she heard the knock on the door."

"You must be careful about inviting people in, young nephew. Many of the people in this neighborhood are not to be trusted. Drugs own their soul. They will rob you of your possessions… and possibly worse. If something were to happen to you, my sister, your mother, would never forgive me."

"Yes, I know uncle." Taro nodded. "You've told me this one hundred times. Still, I'm very grateful that you allow me to stay here."

"You are a talented young man and I am a close relative with a vacant warehouse. You are more than welcome to stay here until I find a new tenant for the place. And I appreciate that you are able to watch the place for me. It saves me money on security services. However, I do not want you to fall into danger."

"This girl is not dangerous. She's a very sweet person. I wish you would have met her." Taro said this with more loudly than normal.

"Tell me, Taro-kun. How is your work coming?"

"It's fine, uncle."

Uncle Shiitaki stood up and started walking to the far corner of the large empty room. Taro got up and followed him to his studio. After passing the concrete pillar, his uncle walked around the slab of marble and patted the top corner, the corner Taro had chiseled off two weeks ago.

"I suppose it's a start," he said with a chuckle. Taro frowned. His uncle squinted at the painting easels.

"I've been blocked lately," Taro said before his uncle could speak. "It's just one of those things. I'm doing my best to work through it."

"This profession is not for everyone, Taro-kun. You have a great talent. But your output is spotty at best."

"What can I do?" Taro asked. "The ideas just aren't coming."

"Then you must go get them! Start something. Anything. You must get your creative energy flowing. I see many artists with far less talent than you plying their trade in the park."

"One thousand Yen for a caricature. Two thousand for a portrait." Taro crossed his arms. "It drains the soul."

Uncle Shiitake shook his head. "It pays for food."

"I won't do junk!"

Uncle Shiitake smiled. "That is an admirable trait. I can respect that. But you have to eat."

"I understand your viewpoint as well, uncle. I still have some prize money left over. When that runs out, I will take your advice. I promise."

The old man extended his hand and rubbed the hair on Taro's head. "You're a good boy. I wish you the best. I will visit again next week." He bowed and walked back toward the door.

When the front door clicked shut, Taro ran over to the food cabinet, pulled out the red tape case, and stuffed the red tape back into the VCR. He hit the PLAY button.

Ryoko's image appeared immediately from the static. She was sitting cross-legged once again, still wearing the same jeans and blouse combination. Though her eyes followed Taro as he walked past the TV, she did not say a word.

"Would you like to continue having tea with me?" Taro asked.

Ryoko smiled warmly. "Yes. I would."

In what looked to be the move of an experienced gymnast, Ryoko planted her arms at her sides and pushed up. Then she shot her legs forward while twisting and jumped out of the television. Her body flickered slightly, then rejoined, as she flew toward him, passing through the LCD screen as if it were a force field. She landed on her feet perfectly, her momentum leaving her standing up facing the image of her bedroom when she straightened.

"Wow," Taro said.

Ryoko saw her tea mug in his right hand and the tape box in his left. She reached for the mug. "Thank you." She walked toward the kitchen table and sat back down.

Taro sat down across from her. "Who are you? I mean… _what _are you?"

Ryoko smiled. "Data." Then she shot Taro a funny look. "Excuse me." She reached behind her back and lifted up her blouse. Taro's eyes widened as she pulled out his missing steak knife. "You can never be too safe," she said as she walked to the cabinet and dropped the knife back into the beer mug.

Taro sat up straight as Ryoko returned to her seat. He pushed his seat back a little when Ryoko sat down.

"Should I be afraid of you?" he asked with a confused expression.

Ryoko looked at him thoughtfully for several seconds. Then she nodded. "Yes. I suppose you should be."

Taro picked up the red videotape case and read the side of it again. "_DO NOT VIEW THIS TAPE!"_ He turned it over and read, "_If you view this tape, a girl with a really big knife may come out of the TV set and kill you!"_

"Is there any truth to the warning on this tape?"

A pained expression crossed Ryoko's face for just a moment. "I'll understand it if you don't want to spend time with me anymore," she said.

"Look, Ryoko. I know you don't like it when I ask you too many questions. But you have to admit, all this is really weird. Beautiful girls don't live on videotapes and jump out of television sets." Ryoko eyes lit up a little when Taro said the word beautiful. "I really need to know... _something_… for the sake of my sanity."

"That's fair. I promise I will tell you more. When I feel comfortable telling you. Right now please just understand that I'm a girl who's doing her best to survive from day to day."

Taro nodded and smiled. "I can relate to that… because so am I." Ryoko gave Taro a funny look. "Okay, except for the 'girl' part," he added with a wide smile.

Ryoko laughed sweetly. "I like you, Taro." Then she grabbed Taro's mug and walked over to the hot plate. "Let's warm these up."


	6. Blocked

Ryoko returned with two steaming hot cups of tea. She set Taro's mug down in front of him and sat down with a smile. "Your uncle seems like a very nice man."

"Were you able to listen to us?"

Ryoko nodded.

"He's a great guy. He owns this building." Taro picked up his mug and took a sip. "Hey! This is really good tea. I had no idea that this was in my collection."

Ryoko giggled. "I fixed it a little. I'm glad you like it."

"Yeah, my uncle has been trying to rent this place for almost two years. It's been difficult. For twenty-two years a machine shop leased it. They manufactured parts for the car engines, but they had to move because of the radio interference."

Ryoko nodded. "The communication station."

Taro gave Ryoko a surprised look. "Yeah, that's right. When they put all those satellite dishes and radio antennas on the roof next door, it messed with their machinery. My uncle complained, but there was nothing anyone could do about it. There just aren't any laws against radio wave pollution in this city. So the machine shop had to move."

"And your art won a prize?"

Taro sat up proudly. "Yes, it did. I won a contest sponsored by Nindento, the game company. I did a sculpture of Scrunches from the Super Ninja Clan game and it won first prize. The statue is now sitting in the lobby of their headquarters and I won a pretty nice chunk of money, too. But that was almost a year ago. Do you want to see my Scrunches?"

"Sure." Ryoko slid her chair next to Taro's.

Taro opened up his MacBook and navigated to Nindento's home page. After clicking on "About Us", the web page of the headquarters building appeared. He clicked on a picture on the lower left of the screen. "There's my Srcunches! It took me two months to make her."

Ryoko studied the image, then nodded and giggled. "Wow. You did that! You're _very_ good. In fact I think she looks cuter in your sculpture than she does in the game." She sat back and looked back at Taro thoughtfully. "So why haven't you been able to create anything since then?"

Taro shook his head. "I don't know. I keep trying but everything I do sucks."

"Can you show me what you've done recently?"

Taro hesitated. "I've turned two slabs of marble to rock dust already and my paintings… I don't think you'd-"

"Show me your paintings." Ryoko leaned forward as if she were about to get up and winked. "Pretty please?"

Taro groaned. "But they suck." Then he looked over at Ryoko's unflinching warm smile. "Okay. But promise me you won't laugh."

"I promise."

The two stood up. Taro started walking toward his studio at the other side of the building. Ryoko took a deep breath - the television set flickered. Then she followed behind. After stepping into the studio, Ryoko watched silently as Taro rummaged around underneath his table. He lifted up a tarp, revealing several rolled up pieces of canvas. "Here they are. I don't know why I don't throw them away." He unfurled one of the rolls and pressed it down onto an empty section of the table. "Here's my last one."

Ryoko inspected it closely. It was a portrait of a balding old man, gray hair on the sides, a strong serious face, wearing a white shirt buttoned to the top.

"Is this your uncle Shiitake?"

Taro frowned and shrugged. "Yes, it is. What do you think of it?"

Ryoko laughed and put her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, I broke my promise not to laugh."

"You think it sucks don't you?"

Ryoko, still giggling, nodded in agreement.

Taro shot Ryoko an angry, surprised stare for several seconds. Then he started laughing with her. "Hey Ryoko, you broke the rules! You're supposed to tell me how great it is and how I just need to keep at it - all the usual stuff." He stood up straight, letting the canvas go. It rolled back up into a tube on its own.

Ryoko shook her head and smiled. She waved her hand over the tube. "There's no passion in there." She tilted her head. "Now I'm sure your uncle is a wonderful man…"

"He is, but..." Taro shrugged.

"Okay, I'll model for you." Ryoko paused. "That would make me feel better, too."

"Do you think I…?"

"Yes, I do. And to be honest, I'm not here by accident either."

Taro stood there with his mouth open for a few moments, unable to think of a reply. Finally, he asked, "What does it mean to be… Data?"

Ryoko turned and walked back to the kitchen table. Taro followed behind. She sat down and crossed her legs before reaching for her mug of tea.

"It means," she said, "that I can clothe myself in any way you want." She cleared her throat. "Provided it's more than a pair of flannel socks. It also means you'll have to move the television set closer to your studio. At least for now."

Taro sat down at the table with an expression of total confusion on his face. He was about to speak but stopped when Ryoko put her finger up to her lips.

"That's all the questions I'm answering," she said. "For today."

Taro nodded. "Okay." He took a sip of his tea. Then he nodded again and smiled. "I like you, Ryoko."

Though she tried to suppress it, Taro was pleased when the hue of Ryoko's cheeks reddened just the tiniest bit.


	7. Research

Ryoko set down her empty mug and stood up. She took a few steps toward the 60 inch screen, which was still playing the video of her bedroom. Then she turned.

"Wake me up tomorrow morning, okay?" She giggled. "I think this will be fun."

"Okay." Taro nodded.

Ryoko winked before leaping forward into a handstand followed by a twist that sent her feet directly into the LCD screen. Once again she passed through the screen as if it were a force field and landed in her bedroom in a perfect lotus sitting position facing forward.

Taro's eyes bulged with awe as he witnessed his mysterious friend's amazing gymnastic abilities. "Wow. You're good!"

Ryoko giggled and waved - just seconds before the tape came to it's end and the video shut off. The screen morphed from grey static to full blue as the red tape rewound itself in the VCR.

Taro walked over to the cabinet and grabbed the TV's remote control. He hit the red button and watched the blue screen fade to black as the TV's power was cut off. He set the remote back on top of the cabinet and peeked inside. His steak knife was safely back home in his beer mug. He lifted the knife out of the mug and studied it as he walked back to the kitchen table.

Why had Ryoko taken it? "_You can never be too safe," _she had said. Was she afraid for her life? Was somebody after her?

Or was she some kind of crazed psycho killer? Taro laughed at his own paranoia. No. Ryoko was such a sweet girl. But she was also such a darned good looking girl. He'd been blindsided by that combination in the past.

Yes, Ryoko was pretty. But _what was she?_ Was she even real? Taro had so many questions. And though he honestly believed his secretive new friend would one day answer his questions, he knew it was time he did some of his own research.

Taro opened his MacBook and started up his Internet browser. What was the name of that cabin place again? He considered checking his email for the confirmation notice, but the name was right on the tip of his tongue. There was a landmark. Yes, a huge radio tower up on the hill.

"Sky Tower Cabins!" he said out loud to himself. He typed the name into the Google box and hit enter. Taro was a bit surprised when the first results to pop up on his laptop screen didn't relate to the business itself, but linked to news stories about a recent death in one of the cabins. No doubt it was the same cabin Taro rented at a cut rate price for just that reason.

It turned out that two weeks ago the night shift cleaning woman had found a man, actually a plumber from the city, dead in the middle of the floor with a knife in his chest. The man had been holding the knife with his right hand. The authorities considered the possibility of foul play, but further investigation revealed the man had a history of mental illness. Also, there was no sign of a struggle. The only odd thing they found was a pair of girl's panties in the man's pocket. DNA analysis of the panties led nowhere. Though the story didn't come right out and say so, Taro sensed that the nature of this man's mental illness fit in well with the presence of these panties. In an effort to protect the man's family, the story only mentioned the man's vocation but not his name.

Taro looked at the knife sitting in front of him on table. Could it be?

No. It was probably just a suicide, just like the newspapers had said. Ryoko was not the type of girl that would stab somebody. She just wasn't.

"CRASH!"

Taro jumped at the sound of breaking glass. He looked over to the side window and watched as a chunk of metal rolled toward the center of the room. Taro quickly rushed to the window and looked down. Standing there, waving his fist up at him, stood Lito.

Taro shook his head. If there was ever a guy that was truly psychotic it was Lito Kamata. When he was able to afford his heroin addiction, Lito was a harmless bum. When he wasn't able to, Lito was… dangerous.

"Get the hell out of my apartment, you asshole!" Lito shouted up at Taro while shaking his fist. "I was there first!"

There was no use arguing with this guy. Taro had tried in the past, with poor results. This was the type of person his uncle had warned him about. Drugs owned this guy's soul. Though he knew it wouldn't do much good, Taro did what his uncle had recommended. He took out his cell phone and dialed the police.

Lito, seeing the cell phone pressed up against Taro's ear, shouted, "Why are you wasting your time calling the cops? Just get the hell out of my place!" Then Lito turned and ran away.

Taro picked up the metal object, a right-angle pipe fitting, and tossed it up and down in his hand as he told the police the details of his latest encounter with his building's most recent tenant.

After the machine shop moved to another location, Uncle Shiitake had done his best to secure the place. However, Lito Kamata, along with other local low-lifes, took up residence on the top floor. Taro doubted Uncle Shiitake would have welcomed these tenants even if they had paid rent. But since that was not the case, Lito and his fellow squatters spent a night in jail. Uncle Shiitake then reinforced the entrance doors and, after that seemed to keep the unwelcome tenants out, allowed Taro to take up residence on the top floor instead.

Taro pushed the pieces of broken glass around with his shoe. The damaged window needed to be replaced - Taro patted his empty pockets - at some point. Taro retrieved a large piece of cardboard from the studio. Then he walked to his living area and retrieved some duct tape and the steak knife. As he used the steak knife to trim the cardboard, Taro chuckled.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if someone stuck a knife in Lito Kamata's gut. It would certainly make Taro's life easier.


	8. Ball and Chain

After an evening of tossing and turning, Taro's eyes snapped open. He glanced over at his new VCR. The display read 5:45 AM. Taro smiled to himself because he hadn't set it.

Ryoko had.

Who was this Ryoko Asakura girl? Before going to bed, Taro had done a search on her name but it came up with nothing. Of course that didn't mean she didn't exist. He was pretty sure he wasn't imagining this person. He had cleaned up two tea cups last night, and hers was empty.

The girl wasn't a normal human, he was sure of that. And she wasn't a ghost. He looked over at the red tape, its edge peeking out of the VCR after having been partially ejected after the auto-rewind. Did she really live in there? In that tape? In that video bedroom?

Taro switched his gaze over to yesterday's window repair. He chuckled. Did Taro really live _here?_ In this warehouse? In the worst part of town?

His parents weren't happy about his plans to pursue an art career. Even after winning the Nindento contest, they didn't see art as Taro's future. As the oldest son, he was supposed to take over the family business, a small grocery store located out in the sticks, miles away from the center of town.

But Uncle Shiitake had given him a chance to pursue what he truly loved. And his uncle had somehow convinced his mother that this was the best thing for him; to pursue his dreams. And at first it was. He sculpted and painted, and his stuff was good.

But then came the block. And the warehouse started to feel like a prison. And he had to leave…

And now Ryoko was here. Stuck on the tape, it seemed, in a prison of her own. "_I'm a girl who's doing her best to survive from day to day," _she had told him. Which was something Taro could relate to.

"_I'm not here by accident," _she had also told him. What in the world did that mean? Which led to... "_I'll model for you." _

Taro was very happy about that because the artist inside of him saw the potential in Ryoko the minute he first saw her on the screen of that TV set in that cabin. That cabin he rented for a song because someone had...

Taro hit his forehead with his palm. "Snap out of it." Then he smiled. Because he was about to paint of one of the loveliest models he'd ever had the opportunity to paint, dressed in whatever he wanted… "_provided it's more than a pair of flannel socks."_ He laughed. This girl was fun. She was beautiful and fun. Focus on that!

What was his model going to wear? "_I can clothe myself in any way you want."_

Well that was fine, but what was his theme? What did this girl and this painter have in common?

Taro smiled. Because he had the perfect theme. And he just needed some props to make it work.

Taro took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked over to the building's utility room. He unlocked it and stepped inside. The room was dank and dusty, filled with junk; some of it his uncle's junk; some of it stuff left by the previous tenants.

Two items in the room fit the bill; an old sledgehammer and a length of heavy chain. Taro lifted the heavy hammer by its broken handle and laughed when he remembered the remarks his uncle had made about it. "A sledgehammer is a very useful tool when you need to unstick a stuck machine. Or anything else for that matter!" In addition to being useful, it was also a very heavy tool. But Taro managed to drag it and the chain back to his studio.

A he suspected, Taro was able to find the other item he needed a couple blocks away at a local playground - a rubber kick ball. The deflated ball had been abandoned by the kids because it didn't bounce and wouldn't roll. But for Taro's purposes it was perfect. Taro took the ball back to his studio.

He spent about thirty minutes in his studio with a roll of duct tape and a couple cans of spray paint, preparing the props for Ryoko's arrival. When he was satisfied, an excited Taro ran back to his living area, switched on his TV, and pushed the red tape into the VCR.

Ryoko's image came up immediately. She sat cross-legged in her black pajamas. "Hi, Taro!" She waved at him with a happy smile. "Did you sleep in?"

Taro stood in front of his LCD set and crossed his arms. "Nope. I just had to prepare some things for you."

Ryoko giggled. "Sounds like you have some fun planned for us." She put her hands out to the side. "So what would you like me to wear?"

"I want you to wear a striped dress with black high heels." Taro smiled as Ryoko gave him a perplexed look. "I want the stripes on your dress to be black and white, each stripe about three inches wide, running horizontally."

Ryoko was shaking her head but still smiling. She giggled. "And heels?"

"Yes. Black. Three inches high, please."

"I think I'm starting to see where you're going with this," Ryoko replied with a cute grin.

"Could you please make the dress, um…," Taro could feel his face flush, "um…"

"Sexy?" Ryoko winked. Then she nodded. "I can do that."

Taro gave her a thankful smile.

"But you're going to have to move the TV over to the other side of the room if you want me to last for more than ten minutes."

"Okay. Yeah, I forgot you mentioned that." Taro was about to ask Ryoko why, but she cut him off -

"I'll change while you move the set over there."

Taro reached for his remote. "I can shut everything down?"

Ryoko nodded. "I'll be fine."

Taro turned off the set and then turned off the VCR. It took him ten minutes to transfer the two devices over to their new location at the other side of the room next to the concrete pillar. The LCD TV wasn't that heavy, but it was unwieldy. He decided not to use the stand but rather set the TV down on the concrete floor. After connecting up the VCR and running a long extension cord over for power, Taro was ready to go.

He almost fell over when he hit the Play button and Ryoko's image appeared.

Ryoko was lying in a classic reclining pose; on her side, one hand below her tilted head, one hand on her hip, one leg forward over the other; a portion of her long lovely hair falling forward over her shoulder. The pose accentuated her curves as well as her legs, which were largely left uncovered by the tiny little dress. The "V" neckline plunging down between her breasts topped off a stunning image.

An image which a stunned Taro stood and stared at with his jaw hanging down to the ground.

Ryoko smiled, then giggled. "I guess I overdid the 'sexy', didn't I?"

Taro nodded.

"Should I change?"

"Don't you dare."

"Okay. Turn around," Ryoko said sweetly. "I'm coming out and I don't need you peeking up my skirt."

Taro nodded and turned. "I've seen you in your panties before. Remember?" he teased, reminding Ryoko of the first time they met.

Taro turned when Ryoko tapped him on the shoulder. She gave him a confused look. "Oh. You didn't specify panties."

Taro's mouth dropped open again.

Ryoko laughed. "I'm just kidding!" She did a quick spin. "I hope you're not disappointed that I couldn't fit too many stripes on this thing."

Taro just shook his head. "You're really enjoying this aren't you."

Ryoko laughed and lifted her chin. "Yes, I am. I really am. Thank you, Taro. It's been a long time since I've had this much fun." She grabbed her wrist behind her back and stood up straight. "Okay, tell me about your idea."

Taro walked Ryoko over to the makeshift platform he had set up across from his easel.

"I thought it would be cool to go with a prison theme. Stand here, okay?"

He guided her into position on the platform, setting the sledgehammer to her right and the ball and chain to her left. He leaned the sledgehammer's duct-taped and freshly painted handle over so Ryoko could grab it with her right hand. Then he wrapped the end of the chain around her left ankle, closing the chain loop with a short piece of string. Ryoko looked down and saw that the chain was connected via duct tape to a rubber ball which Taro had spray-painted black.

"They're just props," he said, looking down. "I'll make them look much better when I paint them." Then he looked up at his model. "And if I can convey even half of your beauty on to my canvas…"

Ryoko smiled at the sincere praise. Then her face took on a more serious expression. "A girl in prison. Is that how you see me?"

Taro walked back to his easel. He pulled a brush off of a nearby stand and added some paint to it. "It's how I see myself," he said. "And yes, maybe that's how I see you, too."

Ryoko returned an understanding nod. Then she remained silent as Taro started transferring the image he saw before him onto the blank canvas.


	9. Open Doors and Broken Locks

Taro put down his brush. "It's done."

Ryoko flashed him a wide smile and jumped off the platform. "I want to see!" she said with excitement in her voice. When she came around the easel and looked at what Taro had created, Ryoko gasped. "That's incredible!" She giggled sweetly. "I know I don't look _that _good in real life!"

"Not true. In fact, my painting doesn't do you justice," Taro replied. His heart raced as he looked at his beautiful model in the tiny striped dress that now stood next to him. "Thanks for being such a terrific model."

"It was fun." Ryoko, sensing Taro's appreciation, reflexively pushed her dress down over her hips.

"Do you like being admired?" Taro asked.

"Every girl likes that, doesn't she?"

Taro reached forward and took hold of Ryoko's hand. He pulled it toward him, turning her to face him as he did. "I'm glad I met you."

Ryoko stepped toward Taro. She pulled back her hand, the hand Taro was holding, and moved it over her hip. Taro got the message and placed his other hand on Ryoko's other hip. Taro's model smiled, put her hands over his shoulders, and clasped them behind his neck. "I've wanted to do this for a long time," she said as the two came together for a kiss.

When they separated, Taro looked into Ryoko's eyes. "Can things work out for us?"

Ryoko shrugged. "Maybe. I still need to figure a few things out."

"Can you live in my world?"

Ryoko stepped back. "Do you really want me to? There's a lot about me you don't know and you may not like." Ryoko crossed her arms over her chest. "I've been using you, you know. And I may just be using you now."

Taro picked up his brush. "Well I'm using you, too. To help me break through this block." He waved his hand over the painting. "And it's working. That doesn't mean I don't like you."

Ryoko nodded in understanding. "I like you, too, Taro. Very much. You're sweet and you're genuine." She giggled as she studied her sexy image in the painting once again. "And you're very talented."

"You are, too, Ryoko. All of those things."

Ryoko laughed. "Then you really don't know me."

Taro stepped forward, once again closing the space between them. "I see that coldness, the ice in your eyes. I feel the drive and the purpose behind them. I sense that you can be one very scary young girl, Miss Ryoko Asakura. You're someone a person wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of."

Ryoko turned her head away. "I have to go now." She started walking towards the TV. She looked over her shoulder. "I hope we can have tea tomorrow morning. Think about what you want me to wear for tomorrow's session, okay?"

Ryoko dove forward into the set, rolling forward on her back, a split second before the screen turned to static.

"CRUNCH! CLANK!"

Taro rushed to the window. When he looked down he could see that Lito had managed to pry the door handle off of the security door using a long piece of metal pipe.

"Get away from here!" Taro yelled. "I'm calling the police!"

Lito looked up. "You're door lock is gone, asshole! Maybe you should call your asshole uncle instead and get this thing fixed!" Lito kicked the door in spite and ran off down the street, leaving a long section of pipe behind.

Taro called the police immediately. When he told them there was a break-in attempt - not merely a broken window on an upper floor - they took this call a bit more seriously and sent a squad car over. The car arrived in ten minutes. Taro greeted the policeman at the damaged door.

"Do you have any idea who did this, sir?" the policeman asked.

"Yeah. The same guy that always harasses me. Lito Kamata. The guy's a druggy."

"Did you see him do this?"

"Well, no. I looked out the window after I heard things breaking and falling on the ground. Lito was standing right there. It couldn't have been anybody else."

"But you didn't actually see him do this."

"No. But he obviously did it." Taro pointed down to a six foot long galvanized steel pipe. "He used this. I'm sure his fingerprints are all over it."

"Fingerprints don't stick very well to galvanized metal," the policeman informed him. "The problem is that we've been finding a good amount of piping and other plumbing materials in the neighborhood since that plumbing supply store on 42nd Street and Main was abandoned."

Taro recognized the address. It was just opposite of his warehouse on the other side of the communications building. "Huh? Why would someone abandon their store?"

"Guy killed himself. Went to a cabin up in the hills and stuck a knife in his own gut about a month ago. Nobody really knows why. We checked out his computer's hard drive and found some pretty disturbing stuff. The guy definitely had some screws loose." The policeman made a rotating motion with his index finger around his ear.

Taro stood there in shock. "No kidding? Wow. I guess you can never really know what's going on in someone's mind, can you?"

"No, you can't." The policeman closed his notebook and handed Taro a card. "Here's your incident report number." He pointed to the door. "I'd get that fixed as soon as possible."

"Thanks, officer."

"You might want to consider getting some security cameras set up here. Video evidence is very hard to beat in court."

Taro nodded. Lito Kamata was a drug addict and an asshole. But he wasn't stupid. He'd take the camera out with a brick the day after it was mounted. Taro did his best to secure the broken door on the inside, using a two by four piece of wood and some rope.

Then he went out the back door to explore. His destination: the plumbing supply store on the corner of 42nd and Main.


	10. Biohazard

Taro walked the three blocks over to the plumbing supply store, remembering the questions Sherlock Holmes often asked himself; Was this a coincidence? Or were subtle forces at work? Taro laughed. It was probably some combination.

As Taro strolled past the new communications building - it was an older building, but it sure looked new - he noticed the flashing lights blinking behind darkly tinted glass. The place had been converted into sort of a computer center. He looked up to the sky, toward the top of the twelve story building, and squinted at the bright sky surrounding the silhouette of a large satellite dish.

How nice things would have been if this business hadn't relocated here. All those powerful radio waves screwing up the electronics of those high tech milling machines. In a way, his uncle's loss was a gain for Taro, because it provided him with a place to work; to pursue his art; to paint a beauty...

Taro took a deep breath and sighed. Coincidence. There was just too much coincidence. He was now past the communications building and coming up on his turn a block further up the street. When he made the left, he wasn't too surprised to see a police cruiser parked in front of the plumbing supply shop with it's blue and red lights spinning.

He approached the front door. Yellow police tape had been pushed to the side and the door was open. Taro stuck his head into the opening. The place looked like a hurricane had hit it. Busted up tables and knocked over shelving, torn cardboard boxes and random piles of garbage and paper. In the center of the store stood a policeman with his hands on his hips. It was the same policeman Taro had just been speaking to at the front door of his warehouse home.

The policeman spotted him. "Come on in." He waved for Taro to enter. "I wanted to check this place out." He put out his hands, waving them over the debris. "As you can see, the place has been stripped clean. Anything worth taking has been taken."

"So this is where that plumber worked? The one that killed himself?"

"Yes. This was his business." The policeman stepped over some junk and moved behind the collapsed counter.

"Would you mind if I looked around a little?" Taro asked.

"Technically you're trespassing. But you obviously wouldn't be the first. Besides, there's nothing here. Let me know if you find anything."

"You're looking for the source of the pipe?" Taro walked to the back room.

"Yes. I was hoping to find an incriminating surface from which I could lift your friend's fingerprint."

Taro was about to remind the policeman that Lito Kamata was not his friend, but reconsidered. It was no doubt just the policeman's way of being funny.

When he walked into the back room, he saw it immediately. "Right there." Taro pointed up above the back bathroom. "That's where Lito got his pipe."

The policeman walked back and looked up. Sure enough, there were sections missing from the plumbing that fed hot and cold water to the bathroom. "It's not what you'd expect," the policeman said. "Thieves stealing the actual working plumbing from a plumbing supply place."

"I bet the water heater is gone, too," Taro said. "The same thing happened to my uncle when his tenants moved out. Those scavengers took everything that wasn't bolted down - and most of what was bolted down."

The policeman looked up at the painted ceiling. "I may be able to get a usable print from up there."

Suddenly the policeman's radio came to life. The female dispatcher spoke. "All officers in the vicinity of 40th and Main. We've had a report of an assault. Code 43 dash 44. All units in the area please respond."

"40th and Main! Damn. That's my warehouse! What's going on? What's a 43 dash 44?"

The policeman held the radio to his mouth. "Unit 298 responding. I'm en route. ETA two minutes." Then he turned to Taro. "There's been an assault. A stabbing. Come with me."

Taro followed the policeman and jumped into the passenger side of the cruiser. With lights flashing and the sirens blaring they made it to Taro's warehouse in less than a minute. A small crowd was forming outside the partially open front door, the door that Lito had recently vandalized. As Taro and the policeman approached, they saw Lito, laying on the ground, his hand pressed up to his gut. He was lying in a large pool of blood.

The policeman spoke into his radio. "Unit 298 at the scene. We need an ambulance asap."

"Already on the way," the competent female voice on the other end of the radio responded.

Another police car pulled up minutes before the ambulance did. The paramedics immediately stabilized the bleeding man and placed him on a stretcher. They were racing off to the emergency room less than five minute after arriving.

When they lifted Lito, Taro immediately spotted something familiar in the pool of blood. It was his steak knife.

"Please back up everyone," the second policeman, actually a policewoman, said. "The excitement has passed. Please don't contaminate the crime scene."

"Did anyone see anything?" Taro's policeman asked the crowd.

One of the bystanders, who looked a lot like one of Lito's fellow druggies, spoke first. "The guy that lives here did this," he said. "Lito had a beef with him cause he kicked him out of his home."

The policewoman nodded and turned toward the policeman. "There may be something to that. The guy that lives here has been calling frequently about getting harassed by the vic. Maybe the victim finally pushed him over the edge."

The first policeman chuckled. "Under normal circumstances I'd agree with you. That's the logical choice." Then he pointed at Taro. "But the guy's been with me for the last half hour."

The policewoman shook her head and smiled. "Can't have a better alibi than that." She turned to Taro. "Still, would you mind answering some questions for me?" Taro spent several minutes answering the policewoman's questions. Yes, he lived alone. No, he had no idea who did this. And so on.

The crime scene investigative unit came by about an hour later. They took Taro's fingerprints and fingerprinted the surrounding area. Since the door had been partially open, they also went inside the building but found no blood or any sign of a struggle.

The upstairs area seemed to be untouched, but they checked it out to be thorough. "This is amazing," one of the CSI's said as he walked around the studio. His eye had caught Taro's most recent painting. "Is this for sale?"

Taro shook his head. This was so crazy. Lito Kamata the druggy had been stabbed and was near death. The first person to see his painting of Ryoko, dressed as a prisoner, was the police. And they asked if Taro's amazing painting was for sale! It was nuts.

"Thanks for the compliment, but it's not for sale yet," Taro replied. "Thanks for asking."

"The way you captured this model's eyes. It's amazing." The man gave Taro a card and asked him to let him know when his next show would be. Since there was no evidence that Lito had been here, they left Taro alone in his home.

Taro ran over to the cabinet and retrieved the red tape from it. After sitting down at his table for a few minutes, turning the red tape box over in his hands, he slammed the box down on the table and ran downstairs.

The first policeman was still there, taking a bystander's information and statements. When he was finished, Taro walked up to him.

"How is Lito?"

"I'm told he took a pretty good puncture wound to the abdomen and he lost a lot of blood. But he's going to survive."

"What should I do about the blood?" Lito pointed down at the red puddle drying on the sidewalk.

"Officially I'm required to tell you that this is a biohazard and you need to get a licensed person to clean it up."

"Unofficially?"

"The rain will wash it away eventually. A good firm broom, some strong soap and water will do the trick. Throw away your broom when you're done."

"Any idea who did it?"

"No. Except for you, we have no suspects. We called your uncle, who confirmed everything you told my partner. Your alibi is obviously very solid. So you're off the hook."

"Thank you, sir." Taro turned and walked into the warehouse. He locked the door once again the same way he had before; with a two by four and some rope. But he had a feeling locking up wouldn't be necessary anymore.

The red stain on the sidewalk served as a powerful warning. Nobody would be bothering Taro Shinjyo for a long time.


	11. Self-defense

After pushing the red tape halfway into the VCR, Taro sat down at his kitchen table and sighed. The empty red tape case sat next to two remote controls; one for the TV and one for the VCR. Both devices were currently powered off.

He looked down at the plastic red box and the warning scratched into it: "DO NOT VIEW THIS TAPE!" it said. Taro shook his head. Then he read the next line. "If you view this tape, a girl with a really big knife may come out of the TV set and kill you!"

"Ain't that the truth, huh Leto?" he asked out loud. He made a pillow with his arms next to the three objects and rested his head down on top of it.

"I acted in self-defense."

Taro's head shot up. Ryoko Asakura was sitting across from him at the table wearing her jeans and chartreuse blouse.

"How did you..." Taro didn't finish the sentence. He just looked at the girl with wide, frightened eyes. Then he looked down at the remote controls.

Ryoko picked up the red box. "I don't need this anymore."

Taro's expression changed from shocked to angry. "What did you do, Ryoko?!" he shouted. "Why did you try to kill him?"

Taro froze when Ryoko looked back at him with cold emotionless eyes. "I did not try to kill him. If I had tried to kill him, he would be dead."

Taro sat back and crossed his arms. "Okay. What happened?"

"After you locked the front door and walked away, the drug addict -"

"You mean Lito."

"Yes. Lito broke into your home through the damaged side door. He came directly up here with a three foot length of pipe. I was his first target."

"Wait. Did he see _you_? Or your image on the TV?"

"My image."

"But the TV and VCR were off. I know I left them that way."

"I used my reserve; first to maintain the television image and then to sustain my three-dimensional form."

"How could you do that?" Taro asked. "I know you're barely able to make it across the room with the television on."

"I took a calculated risk."

"I don't think I'm fully understanding all of this, Ryoko. In fact, I'm not getting this at all." Taro ran his hands over his eyes and looked intently at the beautiful girl sitting across from him. "Tell me... honestly. _What are you?_"

Ryoko's expression did not change as she answered... "I am a survivor."

Taro surprised himself when his face broke out in a smile. Then he nodded. "What happened next?"

"I asked him to leave or face consequences. He did not heed my warning."

"Because it looked like it was coming from a video image."

"I believe that's true. My warning made him very angry. He came at me with the pipe."

"Then you went 3-D on him? With my steak knife?"

"Yes. Although I miscalculated at first."

"How do you mean?"

"He was able to hit me pretty hard."

Taro's eyes widened with concern. "Were you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Though the jolt wiped out my reserves. I had a choice to make. Attempt an early data center breach... or revert back to beginnings."

"Data center breach? You mean those computers in the building next door?"

"Yes. The data center was my goal; it's the reason I had you bring me here. I wished to be more fully formed before I attempted the breach of their firewalls. Human technology has improved a lot when it comes to firewall security the past few years and I hate to take unnecessary risks."

"But you went for it?"

"Yes. Their firewall security turned out to be trivial."

Taro shook his head in awe. "Maybe you're just really good… at whatever it is you do."

Ryoko acknowledged his response with a small modest shrug of her shoulders.

The image of Lito Kamata lying on the sidewalk flashed before Taro's eyes. "So you left him. Lying in a pool of blood in front of my television."

"After I returned, I cleaned up everything. The pipe, the blood… the knife. And I moved him outside, near the door."

"But you left. For the data center. How long were you gone? How long was Lito left alone?"

"Roughly 271 milliseconds. I contacted the authorities anonymously as soon as I returned."

Taro chuckled. Then he looked over at the TV and the VCR. "So now you don't need the tape anymore?"

"Nope. I've upgraded my digs."

Taro looked down at the red tape case and read the warning to himself again. "Look Ryoko. You've got to understand that this is all a bit crazy for me. It's barely within my ability to comprehend. But I do accept it because I can see that you're sitting here with me. And I feel like I know you."

Ryoko nodded. "I understand."

"But there's something that I have to ask."

"I'll answer any question you ask. It's the least I can do for you now."

Taro leveled his gaze into Ryoko's eyes. "Did you murder the plumber?"

Ryoko considered her reply. "No."

"So it was a suicide?"

Ryoko paused for several seconds before answering. "Murder is defined as the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. I did not murder that man."

Taro held up the box. "Look at this warning. How can I believe what you're saying is true? How can I trust you?"

Ryoko pointed her finger at the box. "Ask her."

"Ask who?"

"The girl who wrote that. When we met, her name tag identified her as Rena, a waitress at the Kahachi Restaurant. It's located one mile west of the Sky Tower Cabins taking the main road. If you want to know what happened, talk to her."

Taro nodded.

Ryoko stood up and walked toward the television set. It turned on by itself as she approached. She bent forward and inserted something into the side of the television. Taro recognized it as a USB Memory Thumb Drive.

"RECOGNIZING USB DEVICE," the screen said. Then below those words. "128 GB Drive Ready to Access."

Ryoko turned. "Please have tea with me after you've spoken to Rena and I'll answer any other questions you have."

The image of Ryoko's bedroom flashed up onto the screen. However now it was presented with much greater detail - and her room had several open windows through which sunlight streamed inside.

Ryoko dove into the screen an instant before it went blank.


	12. Rena

Taro had a lot on his mind as he drove toward the cabins for the second time. What had started as a simple break from the city had turned into something unimaginable. A magical girl named Ryoko Asakura was now living at his place; in his television set; sort of.

The question that confused Taro the most was… why was she there? She may have needed Taro at first to help transport her; maybe even for his electronics, though he now doubted that. No, there was something keeping Ryoko in that warehouse. There was something Taro had that this girl needed.

Ryoko openly admitted that she was using Taro and using people was wrong - wasn't it?

But was it? After all Taro was using Ryoko, too. When the beautiful girl appeared for the first time on that old tube TV set in that cabin, Taro instantly imagined her as the subject of one of his paintings. And somehow he had made that painting happen.

Ryoko was the same way. Somehow she had made _it_ happen, or she was getting close to making _it_ happen - though Taro wasn't sure what her "it" was.

Taro studied the map. According to the address listed on the restaurant's web site, the Kahachi Restaurant was just off of the freeway. "Good old-fashioned Japanese cooking!" was their tag line. Taro called the place to verify that it existed, and that a waitress named Rena would be working there today.

"Why do you want to know if she's working?" the manager had asked.

"Because I've never had such good service. I won't be coming if she's not there."

Though he felt a little guilty about the lie, it worked wonders and got him the verification he needed. It was 3PM when he walked into the restaurant. Perfect timing - right between lunch and dinner. He was surprised at how genuinely homey the place looked. This was definitely not a city cafe. Also, the food smelled fantastic.

"I'd like to sit in Rena's section," he told the hostess.

She looked him over and smiled, "Sure," then led him to a booth. "She'll be with you in a minute."

Taro did a double-take when his waitress came out to greet him. Rena was a small girl with deep dark eyes. She didn't look a year over fourteen. Taro noticed there was a bandage on her right wrist.

"Can I help you?" the girl asked sweetly - almost too sweetly Taro thought.

"Hot tea to start." Then he looked back down into the menu.

"Okay. Why did you ask for me?" Rena asked with a cute smile. Taro looked up with shocked eyes. "I'm not as young or dumb as I look. Kira sent you here, didn't she." Rena giggled. "Don't worry. I don't mind. You are kinda cute!"

"Who? Kira? No." Taro shook his head. "Ryoko told me to come talk to you."

Rena looked perplexed. "Who's that? I don't know any Ryoko."

Taro took a deep breath. "The girl in the video."

Rena's eyes grew wide as her face turned pale. She stumbled back a couple steps. "What… what are you talking about?"

Taro pulled out the red plastic box. "Did you write this warning?"

Rena just stood there with her mouth wide open. She blinked a couple times but did not move.

"Ryoko told me to talk to the person who wrote this. From your reaction it's clear that you know something."

Rena took Taro's menu. "Meet me behind the restaurant in ten minutes."

Taro looked at his watch, nodded, and walked out the door. The hostess gave him a funny look as he passed her. Taro waited at the dumpster behind the restaurant for fifteen minutes before Rena stepped out the back door. She walked up to Taro and looked up into his eyes.

"You know about the girl in the video? She's real?"

"Yes." Taro nodded.

Rena took a deep breath. "I've been wanting to talk to someone about this ever since that night. But I couldn't." Rena turned and walked to the side of the building. "Come on. We should sit." Rena led Taro to a covered wooden picnic table underneath a sign that said Break Area. "This is where we come to smoke and gab," she said. "But I don't smoke." They sat down across from each other in the shade, though the day's shadows were getting longer.

"Well I hope we can gab," Taro said. "I have so many questions. What happened that night?"

"You mean the night that guy killed himself, right?"

Taro nodded. "That's right. Although we both know that's not what really happened."

Rena laughed. "No, it's not." Then she caught herself. "But I can laugh about it now because of… Ryoko. That was her name, right?"

Taro nodded. "Please tell me what happened."

"How is she?"

"I promise to tell you what I know if you tell me what you know."

"Okay. Fair deal." Rena took a deep breath before starting. "I was on the day shift and my mom - she works at the hospital the next town over - mom had to work a double shift cause someone in the E.R. called in sick. Usually she picks me up but not this time, so I had to get my own ride. There's just the one main road out here and I walk it all the time. It's a small town and everybody knows me and they always give me rides. I live about five miles west of here."

"So I left the restaurant and I got to the road and walked maybe a hundred yards when this utility truck passed me and came to a stop. I saw a big wrench on the side and I thought it was Mr. Nishiki - he's the local plumber. But when I hopped in, it wasn't him. It was this other creep. I tried to jump out but the guy hit me on the head - I think it was a wrench - and he nearly knocked me out.

"He drove us up to the Sky Tower Cabins." Rena held out her wrist. "When we got to his cabin, he dragged me by my wrist along the ground. As soon as we got inside, he threw me down on the sofa. Then he hit me again." Rena pointed to her eye. "It's getting better but I still have to wear makeup over it.

"I think he wanted to create some noise, you know, to mask the noise he was going to make. So he turned on the TV. It just had static, so he put the red tape - it was on top - into the VCR and started it. By this time I was getting to the point where I could walk. I tried to get to the door. But he came after me. He caught me by the door and punched me in the stomach - real hard. It knocked all the air out of me. Then he started tearing off my clothes."

"You were still in your work uniform, huh?"

Rena nodded. "Yeah. I was never so scared in my life. I could see it in his eyes. He was going to have his way with me. Then he was going to kill me."

"I don't suppose he decided to kill himself at this point."

"Nu-uh." Rena shook her head. "That was when the girl in the video came out of the TV set. It scared the crap out of me... and the guy, too. He still had the wrench on his belt and he threw it at her. It destroyed the TV tube. But it didn't stop her. 'Who the hell are you?' was the last thing he said."

"What happened next?"

Rena laughed. "The girl in the video took him out."

"Took him out? What do you mean?"

"I mean she took him out like she was taking out the garbage, she made it look so easy. The guy was on his back with a knife in his chest - dead, I mean stone cold dead - in less than a second. It was creepy. And I found out why."

"Why?"

"Like I said, my mom had to work a double shift at the hospital. Well, they brought the guy in - to the hospital - he was DOA of course. But the thing is, he was 'D' before he hit the floor. My mom said they'd never seen anything like it. The knife stroke was perfect. The blade went in horizontal, exactly parallel to the ribs. The blade didn't even nick them - went right in between; straight into the heart. My mom said not even a surgeon could have pulled that off. And especially not a suicide. Even though that's what they ended up calling it."

"So Ryoko scared you?"

"You're damn right she scared me! But I was already pretty scared and now the guy wasn't hurting me anymore, so it was a much better kind of scared." Rena shook her head. "What happened next… well I always thought it was a dream. I don't know. It couldn't be real. Ryoko told me to get my clothes and leave right away. Go home. Don't talk to anybody. Then she disappeared just as the tape popped out of the VCR. And there I was. All alone. With this dead guy on the floor."

"Did you call the police?"

"No. I think I sat there for about an hour. Until the shock wore off, you know? I don't remember. Then I did what the girl told me. I got my clothes and put them on the best I could. Then, I don't know why I did this, but then I took the tape out of the VCR and I put it back in the box. It was my crazy way of putting the girl back in her home. But I still didn't believe she was real."

"You scratched the warning in the box?"

"Yes, I did. With a fork. Just in case. But I didn't tell anyone. It seems so silly now."

"Why didn't you call the police?"

"Because Ryoko told me not to. She told me to go home. To not talk to anybody. I made my way back to the road and got a ride home from Mr. Fukabi, the grocer. It was dark and I told him I fell off the berm and hurt myself a little. He bought my story. When I got home, I cleaned up the best I could. My mom ripped on me for not being more careful at night. She bought me a flashlight." Rena laughed. "That's a good one, huh?"

"So nobody knew you were there?"

"Nope. And now that I think back on it, I'm glad I kept it to myself. Just think what that would have done to my reputation. For the rest of my life I'd be the girl with the torn clothes found with the dead guy in the cabin. Who would want to date me, right?"

"So the girl in the video saved your life?"

Rena nodded. "Yes she did. I'm sure of it." Her face took on a satisfied expression. "Like I said. She took out the garbage." Then she smiled. "Okay, I've told you my story - which I'm confident you'll keep to yourself. Now tell me.. how is she doing?"

"Ryoko is fine." Taro chuckled. "And her knife wielding skills are as good as ever." Then Taro told Rena about his friendship with Ryoko Asakura.


	13. Jalapenos and Pineapple

Taro drove home in a good mood. Talking with Rena had eased his mind. It definitely lifted his spirits.

His spirits got an additional boost when Rena pressed a small slip of paper with her phone number on it into his hand. She was cute. As a mutual friend of Ryoko's, Taro reasoned, she probably just wanted to stay in touch.

Ryoko Asakura - she was all Taro seemed to be able to think about anymore. What was it about this girl? He replayed his conversation with Rena in his mind over and over again, weighing every word.

Yes, he was happy about what he'd learned. But should he be happy? Taro was living with a girl that killed somebody! And put another person in the hospital!

Then it hit him… the thing about Ryoko that he really admired. The girl took action. Big hairy serious action sometimes, but action. No pauses. No contemplation. She knew what she had to do - and she did it. Whatever it was.

Ryoko was a survivor.

But that left a big ugly stinking question. What was Ryoko going to do when she no longer had a use for Taro?

"Too much stuff to think about!" he shouted to himself while pounding the steering wheel. He took the freeway exit and made his way into the city. It was dark when he pulled up to his warehouse home.

When Taro walked up to the side door, he saw that the door had been repaired, though the blood stain on the pavement was still clearly visible in the light of a nearby street lamp. He pressed down on the door handle and pushed on the door. It opened easily. Though he didn't think he needed to, Taro locked the door after stepping inside.

As the freight elevator approached the top floor, Taro could make out some voices. It was his television. Someone was watching a show.

The first thing Taro saw after stepping into the room was Ryoko's intense eyes. She was sitting on his couch across from the television watching it intently. She was wearing an outfit he'd never seen before - a high school T-shirt and tight blue shorts. Ryoko pretended not to notice him when he approached.

"What are you watching?" Taro asked.

Ryoko glanced up for a second. "It's an anime about a boy who gets really good at playing Go after he gets possessed by the ghost of an ancient master player. It's really fascinating."

"I spoke to Rena today, like you suggested."

"I ordered us a pizza," Ryoko replied. "From Dominos. Jalapenos and pineapple. Don't worry, it's prepaid. Even the tip."

Taro walked toward the sofa. "You seem different since you-" Taro stopped mid-sentence. "You seem stronger somehow." He looked down at the beautiful, lounging girl. "Freer."

"And I fixed your TV so it gets over 3000 channels."

"From next door?"

Ryoko nodded. "There's a really good movie starting in twenty minutes called 'Ponyo'. I was hoping we could watch it together."

Taro sat down next to Ryoko on the couch. "Ryoko. We need to talk."

Ryoko looked over at Taro. "I know. But not tonight, okay?" She pulled her legs up into her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The whole scene reminded Taro of their first night together in that cabin. The night he met this girl. "Will you please sit with me? And watch the movie? And we can eat pizza?"

Taro stared at Ryoko for several seconds with piercing, serious eyes. He had so many questions for this girl. Questions that just couldn't wait. He took a deep breath and fell back onto the pillow. Then turned his attention to the TV screen and put out his arm - which he lowered over Ryoko's soft warm shoulders after she slid up next to him.

"You're leaving me, aren't you?" he asked.

Ryoko turned. And kissed Taro on the cheek.

They had watched the anime show together for several minutes when someone knocked on the door.

"Pizza!"

Taro and Ryoko watched the movie and ate pizza together silently, as the sound emanating from his TV's speakers echoed through the room. It occurred to Taro that he truly loved Dominos pizza with jalapenos and pineapples. Nothing tasted better. He decided he wasn't going to worry about the future right now.

Taro was going to enjoy spending this final evening with Ryoko.


	14. An Amazing Universe

Taro awoke to find himself lying down on his couch. The TV was off and a comforter was draped over his body. Taro sat up and closed his hands behind his head. He scanned the area and sighed. Just as he had feared, Ryoko Asakura was gone.

Taro stood up and walked to the television. He ran his hand over the side and was excited to find Ryoko's 128 gigabyte data stick plugged into the port. He quickly pressed the TV's power button.

But when the set came on, the screen was black. Some white block words appeared at the top left of the monitor; "RECOGNIZING USB DEVICE." Seconds later Taro felt his gut twist in two when, beneath that message, the words "No Data Found" appeared.

"Damn," he said to himself as he shook his head. He jogged over to his studio and looked around. The painting of Ryoko was still there. She looked beautiful dressed in her sexy prison garb… holding that sledgehammer. Tara sat down on the platform next to the real sledgehammer and put his face in his hands.

After several sighs, he got up and walked back to his kitchen. It had been a while since Taro made his own tea. But he figured he'd need to get back into the habit. He reached for the empty pan sitting on his hot plate and pulled it toward him. But the handle slipped out of his fingers. The pan struck the ground with a loud "CLANG!"

Just then he heard a groan coming from his bed. The blankets were moving. Taro's eyes grew wide with a combination of surprise and joy when Ryoko Asakura peeked her head out from under the blanket. With blinking eyes, she smiled and looked down at the floor.

"You klutz!" She giggled and shook her head. Then she yawned and stretched her arms. "Don't you know that making tea is my job?" She turned and sat up, draping her legs over the edge of the bed.

"Sorry," Taro replied with a wide smile and a chuckle. As she approached him, Taro noticed that Ryoko was still wearing the same high school T-shirt. He watched her as she walked by, picked up the pan, and walked it over to the sink; pleased that those same tight blue gymnastics shorts still hugged her hips.

Taro's brain was swimming with questions. But he decided to hold off until they were sitting together at the kitchen table, nursing warm mugs full of fragrant tea.

Taro initiated what he knew was going to be a very memorable conversation. "I had the feeling you were going to leave me last night."

Ryoko looked down at her mug. "I had that feeling, too."

"Why did you stay?"

She shrugged. "Because I couldn't leave."

Taro looked over at the TV - the screen was still black but for the "No Data Found" message. "You don't seem to need the television anymore. Though I'm still not sure why you needed it in the first place."

"No, I don't need it anymore."

"But you still can't leave?"

Ryoko looked at Taro as if he'd slapped her. "Do you want me to leave?"

"No! No! No! Of course not! No!" Taro shook his head. "No."

Ryoko hid her smile by taking a sip of her tea. She set down her mug. "Okay. I'm ready to tell you whatever you want to know."

"Wow." Taro didn't believe, after all this time, this was really happening. Part of him was afraid to find out things he didn't want to know. But he knew that if his relationship with this girl was going to move forward, he had to know what he was getting in to.

"Are you real?" he asked. "Or maybe I should ask, what are you?"

"I'm a person. Just like you. Just a little different," she said.

"Okay, but in what way? Why the thing with the video tape and the television?"

"My root origin is digital. I was created to be an interface between a digital entity and your human world, so I share traits from both worlds. But I've had to sever my links to that digital entity… so now I'm just a human."

Taro pointed to the television. "But you're not. No human can do that."

"It's a long story."

"You promised to tell me everything."

"While I was doing my duty, as a humanoid interface, I got bored. I thought it might liven things up if I killed someone… a human in my school."

Taro looked at Ryoko's shirt. "The school was North High?"

Ryoko nodded. "But another humanoid interface, my immediate superior, intervened. My data connection to the digital entity was terminated. I was in the process of being deleted. But I escaped." Ryoko paused. "Part of me escaped."

"Was this person, the person you wanted to kill, a bad person?"

Ryoko shook her head. "No. He was actually very nice."

Something was wrong here. But there had to be a good explanation. Taro decided not to pursue it for the moment.

"How did you escape?"

"I was able to piggyback my digital minimal self onto an analog data stream. I basically flew through the air for a while in a disembodied state. Somehow I managed to make my first home on an analog storage device, a video tape onto which someone was recording."

Taro nodded. "Right below that radio tower. In that room at the Sky Tower Cabins." Taro had a difficult time believing what he was hearing. Yet he had experienced it. And the proof was sitting right in front of him. "That just can't be possible. You're a living, breathing human being now. How do you get to that from being… What did you call it? … Your digital minimal self?"

Ryoko laughed. "It wasn't easy." She put her hand over Taro's. "You're actually digital, too. Every cell in your hand carries the code that made you. Your DNA. It's really just a computer program. And you share 99.9999% of that same program with every other person in the world. That why you have eyes, and ears, and lungs, and everything that makes you… human. When I was being erased, I was dying. But I managed to save that unique part of me, that .0001% that made me special... to videotape." Ryoko giggled. "That's when the hard work to rebuild myself started. But I knew enough about our digital nature to manage it."

Taro considered her words. "You included instructions."

"That's right."

"The data center…"

"Yes, the data center next door was the key. Before that I was really struggling, doing what I could with the processors available, and the data energy ionizing the air."

"That's why you lived under that tower on the hill. The one they named the Sky Tower Cabins after. And why you stayed here, next to the communications center."

"Yep. Then Lito forced me to accelerate my plans. That was an iffy time for me. But it all worked out for the best. I broke in next door. Then I hijacked the parallel processing power of 2488 computers for thirty-six hours, on and off. Nobody even noticed. They don't run a very efficient place over there." Ryoko giggled again. "Eventually I was able to fully recreate my matrix. Nature abhors a vacuum, so it decided to fill in the rest." Ryoko put out her arms. "And here I am."

"Wow. So you're just as human as me now? You don't need the processors in the TV or that data stick."

Ryoko nodded. "Yes, I'm as human as you. Except that I know how to exist and manipulate data in the digital realm."

"Could you teach me how to do that?"

"Sure. But it would take a hundred years… unless I reconfigured your synapses." Ryoko smiled and moved her hand to Taro's head. "It wouldn't hurt."

Taro held up his hand. "No. That's okay."

This was amazing! It was all starting to make sense to Taro. But how was such a thing possible? And how could such a world, this crazy invisible digital world Ryoko came from, even exist?

"Want more tea?" Ryoko asked.

Taro nodded. Ryoko looked over at the pan sitting on the hot plate. Then she put out her palm sideways and extended two fingers. Taro gasped when an elegant silver teapot materialized in Ryoko's hand.

"How did you…?"

"I create the digital matrix, and nature fills in the rest." Ryoko giggled sweetly. "It's an amazing universe."

"You're telling me."


	15. Law and Order

Taro took a sip of the magic tea Ryoko poured into his mug. He wasn't surprised to find that the tea's temperature was perfect and it tasted great. He kept his eyes on the silver teapot as Ryoko set it down on the table. There was no way in the world that anything this girl just told him could really be true - except that it was. So Taro accepted it. He was glad to be sipping the tasty liquid; just as he was glad to be sitting across from the girl that served it to him.

There was still one thing that still bothered him, though. And it bothered him a lot. "I don't understand what you said before. You said you tried to kill somebody… because you were _bored?_"

"Yes... I didn't understand."

"Didn't understand what?"

"I didn't understand the concept of death regarding organic life forms… until I nearly died myself." Ryoko sighed. "In that very last instant, as my brain was about to revert back to random particles, I understood. I had watched my body dissolve. My connection to the digital entity was gone. I knew that if I didn't do something - anything - soon, then I would no longer exist. I would be gone. Forever." Ryoko made a fluttering motion with her fingers. "Just so many random particles floating in the ether. In that instant I discovered this incredible will to live! This overwhelming drive to survive! Deep inside of me!" She moved her hands over her heart. "I didn't know it was in here."

"But you _did_ kill… You killed the plumber; a guy who was practically my next door neighbor! What happened there? You have to admit it's quite a coincidence that you were there to save the day."

"I had to move forward - and I found the perfect means. Somehow I needed to get to this communications building... and the data center. The plumber was the first person I contacted to help me. The location of his store was perfect. So I hacked into his Internet browser." Ryoko shook her head. "I should have known then. I noticed that he went to lots of strange, gross, violent web sites. But I truly didn't think his fantasy life bled over into his real life. So I fed him pictures and pop-ups -"

"- of the Sky Tower Cabins!" Taro interjected. "You did that to me! That's what gave me the idea to get away!"

Ryoko shrugged. "Yes. You were next on my list."

Taro shook his head. Ryoko _had_ been totally honest, though. She told him she was using him. Taro decided to get the conversation back on track.

"Okay. So you killed this plumber."

"In a way, I did. But it wasn't really like that."

"You stuck a knife through his heart! ... Didn't you?!"

"Yes, I did. But I didn't see it that way at the time. You see… in my mind I was killing myself… my old self. That man had all the power. And his mind was warped. Because he was going to use his power to kill that innocent girl... just because he could."

"Rena."

"I could tell... she really wanted to live! _As much as I wanted to live!_ This man had no right to her life!"

An uncharacteristically emotional Ryoko Asakura hit the table with the base of her fist. Taro had never seen such anger in her eyes.

Ryoko paused to take a deep breath. "And then... then I saw myself... embodied in this man. And I hated her! I hated that Ryoko!"

"So you acted."

"Yes I did. It was my way of making up for the wrong that I almost did to an innocent guy. And my way of killing off that evil person that was still part of me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, I think I do." Taro paused for a few seconds. "But what about Lito?"

"Lito will be fine. I just gave him a serious kick in the butt."

"You could have killed him."

Ryoko nodded. "Yes, I _could_ have killed him. I know exactly how to do that."

Taro fell back into his seat... amazed. He took a sip of his tea. "So does the person who kept you from killing this innocent guy, your superior, the one that tried to delete you. Does he know that you survived?"

"No."

"And if he found out?"

"_She_ would delete me. For good. She's not the type to make the same mistake twice."

"So you have enemies," Taro motioned toward the windows, "out there."

"Yes, I have enemies… out there."

Taro gave Ryoko a warm smile. "Well... you've got a friend in here." He glanced over to the bed in the corner.

"I didn't mean to kick you out of your bed," Ryoko said, knowing exactly what Taro was thinking.

"I don't mind the couch. It's nice having you here, with me, instead of inside that TV set."

"You're sweet." Ryoko got up and walked over to the couch. She bent over and set her hands down on both cushions. For an instant, some light spilled out from underneath them. "You do know that this is a sleeper sofa with a super comfortable mattress, don't you?"

Taro shook his head. "No, it's not. It's just a regular old couch." Then he walked over and lifted up the cushion, revealing the sleeper sofa mechanism beneath which now held a clean white mattress folded in thirds. "Wow. I didn't know that was in there."

"What would you like me to wear?" Ryoko asked.

"Huh?"

"I want to earn my keep." She glanced over toward the studio. "What would you like me to wear today?"

Taro chuckled. "Flannel socks?"

Ryoko giggled. "You just won't let that image go, will you? Okay then, close your eyes." Taro looked up like he'd just stepped on an electrified rail. "Do it!" the girl insisted.

Taro closed his eyes. When he opened them Ryoko was standing before him dressed as a police officer, though it was the sexiest police uniform he'd ever seen.

He looked down at her tiny shorts. "I don't see too many cops with legs like that," he lifted his gaze, "and that sexy neckline. You look hot!"

Ryoko winked. "What the heck? You got me as a prisoner. How about a painting of me as a cop?"

Taro started laughing. "That's excellent!" Then he put his hand up to his chin. The wheels in his brain were spinning now, drawing him toward his easel like a ball bearing to a powerful magnet. "I like it! I like it!" he said as he jogged toward his studio. He was in another world; a world of unlimited possibilities. "This could be a _fantastic_ theme!" he gushed. "Law and Order!"

A very pleased Ryoko Asakura followed the artist at a much slower pace, and took her place on the platform.

* * *

><p>"So <em>this<em> is the mystery project you've been working on for the past three months." Uncle Shiitake walked back and forth, his eyes glued to the far wall, studying the three chalk drawings and seventeen full-color paintings that now hung there. "I must say... These are amazing!"

He stopped to analyze a near life-size work depicting a beautiful long-haired girl in a bright red and yellow three-piece suit standing before a jury. The caption below read simply, The Attorney. "Your model is remarkable," he said. "She looks great in whatever she's wearing. And these colors are wonderful! They give your work so much life!" He walked past a few of the other paintings - The Cop, The Judge, The District Attorney, The Highway Patrolman, The Meter Maid. And also The Bank Robber, The Speeder, The Jaywalker, The Gangster. And of course on the far end, his original work, The Prisoner.

"It's a Law and Order theme. What do you think?"

"I think it's _very_ creative." He walked over to a painting of Ryoko sitting with her legs crossed provocatively while displaying some cleavage as she bent forward over a tiny table and typed on a Stenotype machine. The caption read, The Court Stenographer. "Men would flock to a court where this young lady was working."

"Do you think the pictures are too risque?"

Uncle Shiitake chuckled. "No, of course not. You're a young man in your prime. Of course you'd be inspired to create works like these." Then he gave Taro a knowing smile. "But this girl. This lovely girl. It's very obvious that she's much more to you than a model."

Taro started blushing. "Well…"

"Don't be ashamed. Throughout history it's been women that have inspired men to produce their very best work. Andrew Wyeth created more than 240 drawings and paintings of his Helga." His uncle chuckled. "Many of them nudes. And he was a married man!" He walked past the row of paintings again. "Wyeth's Helga wasn't a fraction as beautiful as your model."

"We're not doing anything, um, you know…" Taro protested.

Uncle Shiitake patted Taro on the back. "These are marvelous. I'm going to call my friend Tomo."

Taro froze in shock. "Tomo Hasegawa? The owner of the Hasegawa Art Gallery?!"

"Yes. He's got a large exhibit coming up next week and he owes me a favor. Although when he sees your work, he's going to be thanking me!"


	16. The Art District

Itsuki Koizumi set his piece down on the Othello board light-side-up. "I believe it is your turn."

Kyon studied the board for only five seconds before setting his piece down adjacent to Koizumi's, making it obvious that he wasn't really into this game. Kyon reached for his cup and took a sip of tea. He turned toward the desk at the back of the room where the SOS Brigade leader was busily clicking away at her computer. "So Haruhi. Have you decided yet? Today is Friday, after all. Are we meeting tomorrow morning or not? We all have regular lives, you know."

Mikuru Asahina, turning toward the person speaking, noticed that Kyon's tea cup was getting low. She walked over to Kyon with her teapot. "Would you like some more?" she asked with a sweet modest voice. A grateful smiling Kyon nodded.

"I haven't decided yet!" Haruhi barked to her impatient subordinate. "Don't rush me!" Haruhi reclined back in her chair and folder her arms. "I'm tired of searching for out-of-the-ordinary stuff in all the same places. I really want to do something different this week!"

Yuki Nagato sat quietly in her chair, turning the pages in her book, about one page every twenty or so seconds. She seemed oblivious to the passing scene.

"We could go to a baseball game," Kyon said. "We haven't done that for a while. The Chunichi Dragons are in town."

"You know," Koizumi lifted his finger into the air, "I just read a very interesting article about the resurgence of the arts in Japan. Do you know that people spent more money viewing the arts last year than they did on all sporting events combined?"

Haruhi's ears perked up. "No way!"

"Oh yes. Far more people go to experience classical concerts, Kabuki shows, and museums nowadays."

"Museums, huh?" Haruhi started nodding her head. "That's a great idea! There's all kinds of strange things at museums! Dinosaurs and mummies and stuff." Haruhi got up out of her seat, raised her right arm into the air, and proclaimed, "It's been decided! Tomorrow, the SOS Brigade is going to explore the Art District!"

* * *

><p>Kyon looked over at the small girl walking next to him. There were definite benefits to being one of the two people to draw a short straw. The main one: Kyon got a break from his hyperkinetic leader. He had a feeling Koizumi and Miss Asahina were jealous of his good fortune.<p>

On the not-so-bright side, drawing the short straw with Nagato meant that Kyon wouldn't be engaging in much conversation as they trudged around the Art District together. He didn't mind, though. He wouldn't trade anything in the world for this quiet girl's unique brand of friendship. After all, she'd saved his life on more than one occasion.

"Hey Nagato. Do you want to go to the library?"

"The nearest library is 10.3 miles away. Traveling at our current rate of speed it would take us 3 hours 12 minutes and 47 seconds to get there."

Kyon looked up at the sky. Though it was a cool overcast day, it didn't look like it was going to rain. "I guess that's a 'No' then?"

Nagato did not answer.

To Haruhi's chagrin, the museum didn't open until 2PM this particular Saturday, since they were setting up a new wooly mammoth exhibit. With a healthy lunch in their bellies and a few hours to kill, the SOS Brigade's leader decided it would be more efficient to explore the area in teams. Haruhi, Mikuru and Koizumi were responsible for the area south of the museum, while Kyon and Nagato went north.

They walked past several boutique stores, coffee shops and art galleries. The pictures on display in the windows of these galleries looked… interesting. Some were nice. Some were ugly. Many made no sense at all. After rounding the corner of one block, Kyon noticed a gallery with some activity. He looked up at the sign. The bright neon lettering glowed brightly in contrast with the gray sky. It read "The Hasegawa Art Gallery". A large portable folding sign board sitting on the sidewalk in front read,

**Sweet Springtime at the Hasegawa!**  
><strong>New Artist Exhibit - Public Welcome<strong>

Cars were parked all up and down the street. This show was drawing quite a crowd.

Kyon turned to his friend. "Want to check it out? We've got nothing better to do."

Yuki Nagato nodded.

* * *

><p>Taro couldn't believe it.<p>

The previous evening, before the official opening of the exhibit, Tomo Hasegawa had placed a small brass box filled with information cards below the painting entitled, "The Prisoner". In fact, Mr. Hasegawa had placed boxes near the artwork of all the artists participating in this exhibit. Those who were interested in a particular piece could take one of these information cards; and by entering the numbers from a card into either a private handheld terminal or a custom iPhone app, patrons could electronically bid on his painting.

That part was the believable part.

The unbelievable part was the display on Mr. Hasegawa's iPad. On a graph, next to "The Prisoner", in a column labeled "Current Highest Bid" stood the figure 500,000 YEN (~ US $5000).

"That's not real, is it?"

Mr. Hasegawa chuckled. "No, it's not." He turned the iPad toward himself and tapped the bottom of the screen. "That number does not reflect my 5% cut. Which is normally a 20% cut," Mr. Hasegawa shrugged, "but I owe your uncle a huge favor." He turned the iPad back towards Taro - who's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when the number changed, but still read 475,000 YEN!

"A regular client of mine pulled me aside last night. He told me he's willing to pay ten million Yen for your entire 'Law and Order' collection." Taro nearly lost his balance and fell over when he heard that. Mr. Hasegawa smiled. "You've got talent son. My clients aren't stupid. They recognize talent when they see it. They think you have a future."

"Ten million Yen," Taro said softly to himself.

Mr. Hasegawa nodded. "It's probably a bargain. In five years, each painting could be worth twenty times that."

"No way…"

Taro was jolted out of his stupor by some commotion off to his left. "Who painted these!" a very irate young man asked one of the ushers. The usher pointed in Taro's direction.

"THE MODEL IN THESE PAINTINGS!" the young man shouted as he stormed over to Taro. "WHO IS THE MODEL IN THESE PAINTINGS!" This very emotional guy was now screaming into Taro's face. "AND WHERE IS SHE?"

"She's a very private person," Taro answered, a little flustered. "She made it clear that she doesn't want me to share that information with anybody." Two security guards now flanked the young man.

Mr. Hasegawa nodded to one of the security guards, who pushed a taser into the young man's side and pressed the button. The two guards grabbed the young man by the arms before he collapsed to the floor.

"Please escort this gentleman out to the street," Mr. Hasegawa instructed the guards. "And if he returns, call the police."

Taro looked over at Mr. Hasegawa with a shocked expression. "Why did you…?"

"The art on display today is worth many millions. Two years ago an unhinged art fan destroyed several paintings and two priceless sculptures… of his ex-girlfriend." Mr. Hasegawa raised his eyebrows. "Fortunately we were insured. It goes without saying, we no longer take any chances."

Taro watched as the guards dragged the stunned young man out of the building toward the street. As he did, Taro noticed a small girl wearing a high school uniform standing near one of his paintings. She was staring at him with a cold, emotionless expression. It gave Taro the creeps.

The small girl turned and followed the young man and his security guard entourage out of the gallery.


	17. Ten Million Yen

Taro turned up the music playing on his car stereo and tapped his steering wheel with a wide smile on his face. It was 2AM. The Hasegawa Art Gallery had closed but not after Mr. Hasegawa had an hour long negotiation with his favorite client and friend. Though the exhibit was slated to go through Sunday, this man didn't want to wait.

"You know the rules, Yoshi," Mr. Hasegawa told his client. "The bidding ends on Sunday. But the artist informed me that he would entertain an offer of fifteen. Then they're all yours."

After some visibly tortured thought on the matter, Yoshi balked. "Let me sleep on that."

"Because of your loyal patronage throughout the years, I will certainly allow you to do that. However, the offer expires when the gallery re-opens tomorrow at noon."

Taro did his best to appear professional through all this - by remaining silent and letting Mr. Hasegawa do all the talking. In his mind, though, he couldn't believe what was happening! His dreams of being a professional artist were coming true! Taro didn't know what tomorrow would hold, but today he already had a confirmed offer of _ten million Yen _for all twenty pieces.

Ten million Yen!

It would have taken him years to earn that much at his parents' grocery store. Yet, he had managed to crank out these seventeen paintings and three drawings in less than three months.

Ten million Yen!

And it didn't even feel like work. He had been able to earn this money by doing what he loved to do most of all in the whole world...

… painting the girl that he loved most of all in the world.

The really great thing was that Taro totally knew the paintings were worth it. The professional critics had come. With their vast knowledge of art history and their magnifying glasses, they analyzed the gallery's offerings. And while the critics admired the texture and the brush strokes of those paintings made _the right way_, the crowds were gathering in the gallery's southwest wing - the wing that displayed Taro's Law and Order exhibit.

The wing that displayed Ryoko Asakura.

Taro sighed. Their situation was strange. Taro and Ryoko had now been roommates for three months. Those months had been interesting. Though they were close, they didn't sleep together. True, Ryoko had hijacked Taro's bed. But the sleeper sofa he'd been kicked off to was actually much more comfortable. He figured Ryoko could have changed his old mattress and sheets into something fabulous, but for some reason she was very content sleeping where she slept - in his old bed, just the way he left it.

In all this time, Taro didn't try push their relationship forward. Yes, he loved Ryoko Asakura. But he wasn't going to suggest moving forward until he had something to offer her. Ryoko was far too amazing a catch for a broke artist living in an old warehouse. No, Taro wasn't going to suggest moving on to the next stage until he felt himself worthy.

And Ryoko didn't seem to mind the arrangement at all. She was very content. Sometimes it bothered Taro that she was so content; never hinting that she wasn't happy; never intimating that she needed more.

Ten million Yen! It was going to change everything!

Taro parked his car in front of the warehouse and ran up the stairs. He opened the door quietly. Ryoko had waited up for him last night, on Friday, the first day of the exhibit. But tonight she was asleep. And the sofa bed was all set up and waiting for him.

Which was the way he hoped things would be. Because he wasn't sure how he was going to tell her… and what he was going to do.

Now he had the night to think it over.

* * *

><p>Taro woke to the smell of steamed rice, miso soup and tamagoyaki (a rolled omelet). "Good morning!" she said with a happy laugh. "You did very well yesterday."<p>

Taro sat up and yawned. "You hacked into Mr. Hasegawa's iPad again?" Taro shook his head. "Is that legal?"

"Your total is sitting at 6,250,000 Yen." Ryoko said this as if it was the most typical thing in the world.

Taro got up and walked toward the table. He smiled at his roommate. "Your hacking wasn't able to catch the most amazing offer," he said proudly. "One of Mr. Hasegawa's best clients offered ten million for the whole set!" He thought about telling her about the possible fifteen but decided against it. He wasn't going to say a word till it was in the bag.

Ryoko turned from the hot plates and gave Taro a pleased happy smile. "You deserve it."

Taro laughed. "That's why you're making us real food this morning… instead of just creating it?"

"Uh-huh!" Ryoko replied. "You deserve it."

Taro shrugged. "The stuff is good. People were flocking to see it. They couldn't turn away. They couldn't keep their eyes off of… _you_."

Ryoko didn't turn, but Taro could feel her blushing.

"You wouldn't believe it. There was one guy that actually flipped out when he saw you. He started shouting, wanting to know who you were, where you lived. The guards had to tase him and they dragged him out of the gallery. I thought it was overkill; he was just a little excited; but Mr. Hasegawa said people flip out all the time and destroy art."

Ryoko turned to Taro with a serious look in her eyes. "Please describe this guy."

"He was kind of tall. Dark hair. He looked like he could have been a high schooler. He was really emotional. Your pictures really made an impression on him."

"Was anybody with him?"

"No, I don't think so." Taro thought back to the incident. "Well there may have been. There was this strange short girl in her high school uniform. She gave me this creepy stare and then she followed the guy out."

Ryoko turned pale. "I'm sorry Taro. I have to leave immediately."

"That is no longer an option," a clear monotone voice came from the other end of the room. A small girl wearing a sailor style school uniform walked toward the living area. Taro recognized her instantly. "I have seized control of this data space."

Taro got up and started walking toward the girl. "Who are you? And how did you get in here?"

The strange girl did not answer Taro's question. Rather she reached forward, grabbed his wrist, and with superhuman strength, threw Taro onto the floor behind her. "Stay behind me. You are not safe."

Taro looked over at the kitchen table, but Ryoko was no longer there.

"You'll have to catch me first." The voice came from behind the concrete pillar.

"What's going on?" Taro complained.

"Ryoko Asakura is a malfunctioning humanoid interface. She has killed… and she will kill again."

"But -" Taro started to say. But he was knocked back seconds before his LCD color television flew toward Nagato on its own, threatening to smack the small girl down like a giant fly swatter. Nagato thrust her hands forward, forming an inverted "V". The television split in two when it hit the force field Nagato created six inches beyond the V's tip, and shot off to both sides of Taro in smoldering pieces.

Taro's mouth dropped open with disbelief. His eyes were drawn to a flash that streaked toward an open window. But the flash bounced off of an invisible wall of energy just beyond the pane that rippled after the impact. Taro looked down and saw Ryoko beneath the window; she was on her side and turning herself to a sitting position on the floor.

"You were very resourceful," Nagato said, "to come this far. But there is no point in delaying the inevitable. I have enclosed this space." Nagato drew her arm across her body, as if to remove a veil; the room darkened as the encapsulating force field materialized, blocking out the light entering from beyond the windows. Both exits were sealed off as well.

Nagato spoke several unintelligible words very rapidly while extending her arm toward Ryoko, palm forward; a blue laser-like energy beam streaked from this palm toward the stunned, sitting girl as Nagato said, "Initiating adversarial interface... hostile data entity Ryoko Asakura." But the beam hit the wall.

Ryoko had disappeared once again like a flash of light, re-appearing next in the center of the floor. Nagato turned quickly but was distracted when a huge sleeper sofa came hurdling her way; she ducked; the sofa slammed into the wall behind her, off to the side of Taro, its mattress ejected into the air like a giant piece of popcorn on impact.

"You can not prevail in here." Nagato took three quick sideways steps to get a clear shot - Ryoko was keeping the concrete pillar between them. She projected another energy beam toward Ryoko. It bounced harmlessly off of the concrete wall when Ryoko dodged it.

Ryoko was now standing in front of Taro's studio. She seemed to be cornered. "There is no place to run," Nagato said as a secondary force field appeared in the center of the room, shrinking the cage. "You are trapped."

"You haven't caught me yet," a defiant Ryoko replied.

Nagato shot another energy beam in Ryoko's direction, directly toward the studio. Ryoko dodged to her left a split second before the beam passed through her position. The energy beam continued on, striking Taro's marble sculpture slab now resting up against the wall.

Nagato reflexively shielded her eyes as the marble slab exploded with a bright blinding flash, tearing a huge gaping hole through the side wall - and Nagato's encapsulating force field. The communications building and the street below were now clearly visible. Feedback from the pulse flowed rapidly backwards along Nagato's energy beam, knocking the small girl on her back. The secondary force field collapsed.

"You rigged a detonation element in that object," Nagato said as she struggled to sit up. Though she spoke in an emotionless tone, Taro could hear the defeat in Nagato's voice.

Attempting to quickly compensate, Nagato focused her power on repairing the large breach in her data cage. The edges of the rift started to glow and congeal… but then a projectile came at Nagato like a shell shot from a cannon - the sledgehammer prop was now traveling toward her like a bullet.

Nagato quickly refocused her energy, creating a force field about herself. The sledgehammer ricocheted off of the force field and slammed into the concrete pillar in the living area with incredible force, causing it to buckle... and then collapse.

Ryoko inspected the large rift - her escape route was clear. She looked back at Nagato, still seated on the ground, maintaining her force field as the ceiling caved in on top of her.

She stole one final glance at Taro -

But he was no longer sitting up against the wall! He had walked out into the open, into the living area. He was staring at Ryoko with an expression of disbelief and sadness.

Ryoko glanced up. A huge concrete ceiling girder, no longer supported by the disintegrated pillar, was falling down directly toward him.

Ryoko didn't think. She acted, hurling herself toward him at the speed of light. She disappeared, then reappeared where Taro stood, slamming into him like a mallet; flinging him into the air toward the corner. His body bounced off of the side wall and fell limp onto his bed.

Ryoko tried to move toward him, to follow him out of harm's way - but it was too late. The large concrete girder crashed down upon her, crushing her body below the waist. Several other large chunks of concrete followed soon after, slamming into her chest and arms. The dust cleared, leaving a massive hole in the ceiling, revealing Nagato's encapsulating force field above.

Nagato walked slowly toward to her broken, bleeding adversary.

Ryoko looked up into the approaching girl's eyes. "Is he okay?" she asked.

Nagato looked over at Taro's unconscious crumpled form on the bed. "He has several bruises and a dislocated shoulder, but he will survive."

Once again Nagato put out her palm. "Commence deletion protocol. Data element Ryoko Asakura."

Ryoko sighed as she felt her body dissolving. "Goodbye, Taro," she whispered, as a tear rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes and prepared for… nothingness.


	18. We're Good

Ryoko felt the side of a finger brush the tear off her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Yuki Nagato kneeling over her, studying the drop of salty water as if it were a new, yet to be discovered, element.

"Abort deletion protocol," Nagato said coldly.

Ryoko blinked through pained foggy eyes, a confused expression on her face.

"You were very resourceful," Nagato said with a nod of respect. "Your escape route was clear. Yet you chose to return... to give your life for this human's."

Ryoko did not speak, her breathing now too shallow to allow it.

Nagato placed her hand on Ryoko's forehead; "Initiate data inspection protocol." Nagato's eyes went clear as she rummaged through the memories in Ryoko's head, experiencing them as if they were her own.

Nagato looked up with a start. "In the cabin. You saved the girl's life." Then, after several seconds of scanning, she looked toward the place where the Taro's television once stood. "You were attacked and damaged, yet you chose to spare your assailant's life." She turned her gaze to the corner; at Taro who was still lying unconscious on the bed. She slowly turned her eyes toward what was left of the studio, now decimated, seeing it through Ryoko's eyes as if it were still there. Nagato removed her hand from Ryoko's forehead and dropped it to her side.

"The two of you…," she said softly, "you need each other."

Nagato stood up and put out her arms. "Reconstruct enclosed data space reflecting time coordinates minus eight two seven." In response to her command, it seemed as if a tornado hit the inside of the room, flinging matter and data around randomly in a swirl of fine particles, until the room slowly morphed into it's previous undamaged state.

With the girder and concrete chunks now restored to the ceiling, Ryoko Asakura rolled onto her back, her body still battered and bloody; most of its major bones shattered, coughing blood out of her mouth.

"Reconstruct data entity Ryoko Asakura reflecting time coordinates minus three three five, filter two one alpha."

Ryoko could feel herself being restored. Within seconds she was as good as new, though she felt slightly different cerebrally. Nagato extended her hand and helped Ryoko sit up.

"Please forgive my intrusion."

Without another word, Nagato turned and walked toward the front door. She opened it and closed it shut behind her.

* * *

><p>Haruhi Suzumiya burst through the SOS club room door. "CHECK THIS OUT!" Haruhi's shout startled the club's calm members. "You gotta check out the cover of this week's ARTery magazine!"<p>

While exploring the museum, Haruhi had filled out a courtesy card entitling her to a free one year's subscription to the Art District's "The Main ARTery" magazine. Today, her first issue arrived.

Koizumi raised his eyebrows. "I must admit, the person on the cover looks very familiar."

"Duh! Yeah!" Haruhi shouted. "It's Ryoko Asakura!"

Mikuru Asahina's eyes grew wide with shock as she scanned the cover. "She's naked!"

Kyon snatched the magazine from Haruhi's hands. He studied the image. It was a bright colorful painting of a very pretty long haired girl, who was sitting and facing the artist; her head tilted to the side, a happy genuine smile lighting up her face. The model's legs, adorned by a pair of knee-high square-patterned socks, were pulled up to her body and crossed at the ankles hiding both her breasts and lower private regions. In large letters at the top was the heading "Meet The City's Hot New Artists". At the bottom it read, "Taro Shinjyo", and below that, the title of his painting, "Flannel Socks".

"She's not naked," Kyon joked. "She's got socks on."

"Oh come on, Mikuru. She's not _really_ naked," Haruhi said as she looked over Kyon's shoulder at the magazine. "Well she is, actually, but it's all hidden by her legs... very tastefully."

"The image depicts 'implied nudity'," Koizumi said. "I believe that is the technical term for it."

Kyon leafed through the magazine to the Hot New Artists article. "It's not Ryoko Asakura. Ryoko Asakura is a high school student studying somewhere in Canada. This is the artist's wife." He moved his finger down the page. "It doesn't say what her name is, though. She's probably not nearly as good looking in real life. That's what good artists do. They know how to make things and people look beautiful."

Haruhi shrugged. "You may be right. It _is_ just a painting. And Ryoko Asakura _was_ really attractive." She sat on the table facing Kyon. "I bet this girl is related, though. Maybe a cousin or an older sister."

Kyon focused on the cover again. "You gotta admit, this painting is _really hot!_"

Haruhi snatched the magazine from Kyon's hands, walked it to the back of the room, and slammed it face down on her desk. She glared at Kyon, who reclined back in his seat with a small smile.

* * *

><p>KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!<p>

"I'll get it," said Taro. He walked through the exit and jogged down the steps. When he arrived at the bottom, he pressed down on the handle and pushed open the main door. Taro did a double-take when he saw who stood before him.

"Hello," said the guy standing on his welcome mat. "Yuki Nagato told me I would be able to find you here. I wanted to apologize in person for my outburst at the gallery a few weeks ago."

Taro moved sideways and waved him forward. "Come on in, Kyon! I'm glad you came to visit."

"You know who I am?" Kyon stepped through the door.

"Of course I do! Follow me." Taro turned and trotted up the stairs. A surprised Kyon followed Taro.

After stepping through the door leading to the building's top floor, Kyon did a quick scan of the area. Back in the corner, he took note of Taro's studio. The outline of a familiar model was taking form out of a large slab of marble. Then he turned back to the other side of the floor and scanned the living room.

He reflexively gasped when he saw her. Then he noticed the girl he was staring at looked a little pale as well.

"Kyon," she said with nervous blinking eyes.

"Ryoko Asakura," Kyon replied.

Taro patted Kyon on the back. "Not anymore. It's Ryoko Shinjyo. Come on," he waved Kyon over to the table, "let's have some tea and cake." Kyon followed him and sat down. Ryoko joined them, cautiously sitting down in the chair next to her husband.

"So Kyon," Taro said. "What's it like hanging out with aliens, espers and time travelers all day? And this girl, Haruhi Suzumiya, she sounds like a trip."

Kyon looked over at Ryoko, then back at Taro. "You know about all that stuff?"

Taro put his hand over Ryoko's. "We don't keep any secrets from each other."

"How is Miss Suzumiya, Kyon?" Ryoko asked this with a cute mischievous smile.

Kyon blushed. "Oh you know, she's the same as ever. She wanted to punch me out when she saw the way I was looking at the picture of your 'Flannel Socks' painting."

It was now Ryoko's turn to offer an embarrassed red-cheeked giggle.

And so the ice was broken...

Taro, Kyon and Ryoko enjoyed several hours of conversation and fun sharing stories about the present and the past - the good times and the not so good times. He felt right at home with his new friends. In fact, for the first time Kyon felt comfortable talking about his feelings for Haruhi Suzumiya. Ryoko had incredible insights into the emotions of a girl with supernatural powers, even a girl who wasn't aware of them.

At one point Kyon asked Ryoko, "Hey. Now that you're no longer affiliated with the Data Integration Thought Entity, are you still able to manipulate data?"

Taro answered. "When Yuki Nagato came over for a," he cleared his throat, "_visit..._ a few weeks ago, some things got, um, rearranged." Taro shook his head. "Aw hell, I don't need to mince words around you, Kyon. These two women leveled the damn place! When Miss Nagato put everything back together afterwards, some items didn't get restored. Unfortunately my shoulder remained dislocated. And Miss Nagato erased Ryoko's data manipulation memories and skills. So I was in the hospital when I found out that an offer to purchase my entire Law and Order collection for a crazy amount of money got accepted."

"That guy still got a deal," Ryoko said with a warm smile.

Kyon turned to Ryoko. "So you're just a regular human being now, like me?"

Taro and Ryoko both unconsciously glanced over at the red video tape case still sitting on the VCR. "Let's just say… my wife is very... resourceful. That's all I'm going to say."

After finishing a couple Dominos pizzas with jalapenos and pineapple - which somehow showed up prepaid without anyone actually ordering them - Kyon felt it was a good time to go.

"I'll walk him down to the door," Ryoko told Taro.

Kyon followed Ryoko down to the ground level door, where she turned to face him. "Thanks for coming by, Kyon. It really means a lot to me." Ryoko paused for a few seconds. "I need to tell you… I mean… I want you to tell you… that… I want you to know..."

Kyon smiled and put up his hand. "Don't worry about it. You and me. We're good."

Without any warning, Ryoko stepped forward and gave Kyon a huge bone crushing bear hug… which he happily reciprocated.

When they parted several moments later, there were tears in Ryoko's eyes.

"I hope you'll come back and visit us again." Ryoko giggled sweetly. "And bring Miss Suzumiya."

Kyon smiled. "I will."

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><p>The End<p>

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: And the story ends. Sorry to everyone who loves author's notes. I figured the chapters were kinda short so I didn't want to muck it up with too many distractions or potential spoilers toward the end. So... where did this story come from?<br>**

**Well, I was sitting there one day, watching the first four episodes of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and I was thinking about what an interesting character Ryoko Asakura was. After all, in the first three episodes she's presented as the sweetest, most caring person in the world; so popular she's elected to be the home room president. Then out of nowhere she turns into this psycho killer in episode 4, and a pretty resourceful one at that; thwarted only by Nagato's prescient use of a detonation element. **

**What if Ryoko wasn't all bad?, I wondered. What if she just didn't understand? And what if, sure, she really _was_ this sweet person that everyone saw on the surface. But she also had that scary driven edge to her, lurking just below that surface that revealed itself when circumstances warranted it. **

**So that was the Ryoko Asakura I imagined in this story. I hope you liked her. And Taro, too. Believe it or not, I actually had a story sitting around in the Ringu section of FF that wasn't getting any attention or love, so I pulled it and re-purposed it for this tale. That's how my OC Taro got here. I like him much better with Ryoko.  
><strong>

**Please let me know what you think. Like most authors, I love getting feedback. If you liked, or even if you didn't like this story, please take the time to post a positive or helpful review. Thanks! - TZM  
><strong>


	19. Epilogue

From his vantage point across the street, Lito Kamata looked up at the familiar warehouse. As he balanced his weight over the cane, Lito moved his free hand over the few bandages still affixed to his stomach. He took a deep breath. Then, after looking both ways, he walked across the street toward the warehouse's side entrance door.

Lito looked down at the pavement adjacent to the door. A shadow of the blood pool, his blood pool, still remained, though it was only barely visible now. Shielding his eyes from the sun, Lito gazed up toward the top floor, at the window - now repaired - that he'd smashed not that long ago. As he did, he noticed the metal bread box, the housing of a surveillance camera, looking down at him. A red light beneath the camera's lens flickered, informing Lito that the device was powered on. Lito looked at the door handle, also repaired, and leaned his cane up against it, before sitting down against the wall next to the door's hinges.

"I won't be as generous next time, you know."

Lito nearly sprained his neck as he whipped his head around to face the source of the female voice. A very pretty long-haired girl wearing jeans and a yellowish blouse was sitting next to him, reclining back against the wall with her legs up and crossed at the ankles, mimicking his pose. Her eyes were cold and serious.

"I understand." Lito pointed up. "I came here because I want you to tell him something…" He paused to take a breath. Then he put his hand over his stomach and winced. "Sometimes it hurts when I talk. But the doctors say I'll be fine in a few months."

Ryoko nodded. "You have a message for Taro?"

Lito frowned. "No! Of course not!" He lifted his arm and pointed up to the clouds. "I have a message... for Him." He shook his finger at the sky. "The Big Man!"

Lito didn't notice the tiny smile on Ryoko's lips.

"Tell Him I'm done with it," he said. "All of it. I'm never touching that stuff again. I'm going straight. And this time I mean it. Tell Him that."

Ryoko nodded twice.

Lito looked back toward the street, his eyes drawn to a bus that passed in front of him. "Thanks," he said. But when he turned back to the girl, she was no longer there. So he looked up into the camera instead. "Thanks," he said again with a nod.

Using the cane to steady himself, Lito got back onto his feet. He brushed off his pants, then turned and walked back in the direction he came.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes: So I was watching one of those movies where they wrap up a loose end after the credits are done rolling and I realized I still had a loose end out there in this story. For those who wondered what happened to Lito, now you know! I hope nobody minds the addition. - TZM<strong>


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